Amidst the recent chilly, dreary days, construction on the new Greenback School is on track.
Classes in the new school are scheduled to begin by next January.
Portions of the roof are up, the main entrance rotunda is taking shape and the brick veneer is climbing the exterior of the new 145,300-square-foot facility, which sits adjacent to the current 78,440-square-foot building. The new structure sits on 27.9 acres.
Though the project is a big undertaking at almost four acres under one roof, Merit Construction President and Project Manager Bruce Bosse said the steel beams and concrete foundations are beginning to resemble a school.
"It's really going to be a beautiful building once it's done," Bosse said.
Concrete slab work is complete except on the second story, which is the high school wing. The middle school will be housed underneath. Bosse said the slab work should be poured by the end of the month.
"There is still block work to lay. The second level, once that second slab is poured, then we have to take the block work all the way up to the roof level, then of course there is steel that goes up on top over that block work and then the roofing that goes on," Bosse said. "That will probably be going on through spring.
"While that is ongoing, we will still be doing finishes in other parts of the area where we have already accomplished that," he said.
Crews have been on site since April.
Bosse said sections of the school are further along than others, with some being close to completion.
"It's kind of a work in progress right now as far as seeing what the end product will look like," he said. "There are some portions of the building you can already visualize what the end product will look like. There are two colors of brick and many parts of the building that brick is already completed."
The multipurpose assembly area is "all dried in," meaning the drywall is up and the ceiling and some wall sections are coated with primer.
"The roof is on, but there are still glass and windows and the exterior walls are in the process of going up," Bosse said. "There is an L-shaped area that wraps around. That area is kind of the shop, kitchen-type area that is also now in the dry, which will allow for insulation and those things to press on."
The music and band room has a bit more work. Bosse said steel beams should be installed next week with that roof going on shortly afterward.
Skylights that will grace the elementary school ceiling should be installed starting late next week.
The elementary school is broken into two wings running parallel. One wing will hold grades third through fifth, with the other wing for pre-K through second grade. A playground/courtyard area will be fenced between the two wings.
"Then there is a whole variety of finishes: flooring finishes, some amount of drywall, acoustical ceilings and that kind of thing," Bosse said. "Once we get into a little more decent weather and the masonry contractor is done with his work, then we will go back to sidewalks. That will probably be late spring, early summer before that will start."
Loudon County Director of Schools Jason Vance said he is excited as construction moves further along. "We won't have to have kids in portable buildings," he said.
The new school, which will hold about 900 students, is part of a $43 million building program that includes a new Fort Loudoun Middle School and the recently completed Philadelphia Elementary School cafeteria renovations.
"Everything is going to be nice and new, and it's going to work. It's just going to be conducive to learning. We're excited about that. We think it will be good for the students, the teachers and for the community as a whole," Vance said.
The new Greenback School will cost slightly less than $24 million and is on budget. Constructing a new Fort Loudoun Middle School is budgeted for less than $17 million and the Philadelphia cafeteria renovations came in at less than $1.5 million.
Since joining Loudon County Schools in 2004, Vance said building a new Greenback facility was deemed important.
"We just really felt, looking at the old school, it was time. The old school was out of date, and it seemed like there was trouble in so many different facets with architectural trouble and electrical trouble. The facility was overall out of date and run down. We felt it was appropriate to move toward building a new school over there," Vance said. "To see one finally come to fruition is amazing. I'm excited to be a part of the process."
The current school was erected in 1939.
As far as the old building, its future is still up in the air.
"That's still up for discussion at this point," Vance said. "It will be nice if someone wanted to buy it from us. I don't necessarily know what the market is for that sort of thing, but I think that is what we will try to do first is put it up for sale and try to see how it goes."