Ground broken on $46 million Waynesboro school project

January 10, 2007|by DON AINES

WAYNESBORO, PA. - The school board and administration lined up with shovels Tuesday for the ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony for a $46 million expansion and renovation of Waynesboro Area Senior High School with the serious digging to start within days.

In two years, or less if weather cooperates, the construction of the 108,000-square-foot addition and renovation of approximately 180,000 square feet of existing space will be completed, School Board President Larry Glenn said.

"Everything is ready to go. It can happen any time," Superintendent Barry Dallara said of the project's actual start.

Principal Jon F. Bilbo said the first phase, construction of a performing arts center and fitness center, is scheduled to take about 14 months. That will include a new auditorium and gymnasium, and associated instructional rooms, he said.

Following completion of the addition, those programs and school offices will be moved in while the existing building is renovated.

Bilbo said the existing gym will be turned into two floors of classrooms for technology instruction and family and consumer sciences. The existing auditorium will be converted to house the cafeteria, plus classrooms on two floors.

Bilbo said the noisiest and potentially most-disruptive phases of construction will take place during summer months. When renovations of the existing building begin, classes will have to be shifted around as work begins on the different sections.

When completed in either late 2008 or early 2009, Dallara said the building will have a capacity of 1,600 students. Its design capacity is approximately 1,200 students, but enrollment is about 1,400 "and they're stuck in every closet," he said.

Construction costs are $38.6 million, Dallara said, although the district is seeking to trim that figure through value engineering - analyzing the project to see where efficiencies and savings can be achieved. The balance of the $46 million, is in "soft costs," he said, including such things as furnishings, equipment and architectural services.

Opened in the 1960-61 school year, the high school was last renovated in 1989, Dallara said.

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