From left: Project Superintendent Tim Voigt, Nick Clifford of Young & Wright Architectural, JPS Board Member Joe Pawelski, JHS Principal Allyson Smith, JPS Director of Information Services Chuck Marzec, Richard Krouse of Young & Wright Architectural, JHS Student School Board Reps Abrielle Monaghan and Karlee Rock, JPS Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker, Wayne Scott of Turner Construction, and Connor Wright of Turner Construction
Jamestown Public Schools has broken ground on a $20 million capital improvement project at Jamestown High School.
Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said new roofs, windows, and electrical work involving information technology and fire alarms are part of the project, “..office renovations, those sorts of things. And then, of course, we have the essential stuff for kids and staff which is second floor classrooms, our basement, cafeteria work is going to be extensive, creating a secure vestibule here at the high school, and working on some old gym upgrades; some structural repair for the pool, and as soon as our plans are approved by the state, a lot of work happening on the auditorium.”
Whitaker said auditorium upgrades will include seat repair and possibly some new seats. He said there will be heating and cooling upgrades done with equipment that’s able to handle air conditioning the entire high school building. Whitaker said new plumbing and water fountains will be installed as well with the end of the project including the updating of parking lots and sidewalks.
He said the heavy construction will start this summer, “Probably the most obvious disruption is that parts of the second floor will be blocked off. And Allyson Smith, our principal, has been moving classrooms around and making sure that schedules work with those classrooms blocked off to do work. And the second most noticeable thing is that the cafeteria will be stripped down. The floor will be stripped in preparation for future construction and it will be sealed before the kids come back.”
Whitaker said a separate project to repair the retaining wall on the back of the high school property is underway. He said that emergency work needed to be done as the wall was collapsing toward the railroad tracks, “The state allowed us to use our 98% aid to fix that and that will also be not necessarily part of this project, but it will be happening adjacent to this project. And the other thing that this gets us is because it will involve disturbance of the ground near the basketball/tennis courts and the field out back, we’ll be able to replace those items also using our 98% aid.”
New York State will pay for 98% of the project with the remaining 2% being covered by the district’s capital reserve fund.
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