LEBANON — Construction on a $5.5 million addition will greet students at Mount Lebanon Elementary when classes begin next Wednesday.
Work will continue throughout the school year on a new kitchen and multipurpose room at the south end of the building. Later, the nurse’s office will get a makeover to enlarge it and make it handicap-accessible.
The Lebanon School Board approved the renovation and expansion in February 2021 and planned for it to be funded by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act passed during the early days of the Biden administration.
The project is a combined effort between the city and the school district, with the city rebuilding the street, curbs and sidewalk in front of the school while the district embarks on the renovation.
The price tag has climbed steeply since the project was first drawn up. Originally a $4 million project, the cost ballooned by $1.5 million even as the project was scaled back.
The board allocated nearly $2.4 million in relief funding for the project.
It also originally approved spending about $1.67 million from existing capital reserve funds. The board then added an additional $1.5 million from three other sources to bring the project to a total of about $5.5 million.
Improving the kitchen was identified as a need during the relief fund application process.
Principal Katie Roach said the school currently only has the ability to warm food and depends on food prepared and delivered from Lebanon High School. Food is often cold by the time it reaches students.
The 40-by-80-foot addition will nearly triple the size of the kitchen and allow food to be prepared on site.
The addition also includes a 2,000-square-foot multipurpose room, which will serve as a cafeteria and double as physical education and events space.
“It’s going to allow us to eat in a cafeteria and have PE,” Roach said.
A school paving project has created a new parking area for teachers where a house was razed adjacent to the school grounds.
The sidewalks in front of the school, which were cracked and buckled, have been rehabilitated, widened and repaved to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The city repaved White Avenue, the one-way street in front of the school, as well as Dana Street, which leads to the school.
Roach said the city began working on the road as soon as school ended in the spring in order to complete the paving project in time for teachers to return.
“I was asked what I need for school to start, and I said, ‘I needed parking,’ ” Roach said.
Everett Hammond, the city’s assistant public works director, said officials drew up aggressive timeline for contractors, who met it. Parking lot stripes went down Wednesday.
“We knew when school started, there’s no good day,” Hammond said. “There’s a lot of people in and out of there.”
The result will improve a sometimes chaotic drop-off and pickup process that had parents, teachers and buses all competing for the same space. When completed in the spring, a circular drop-off and pickup will serve parents.
The work will continue through the school year, likely being completed in late spring, said Jeff Highter, superintendent of Eckman Construction, the project’s general contractor.
Highter said the nature of the construction will allow the work to continue with minimal disruption to learning.
The walls and roof will go up this fall with work shifting indoors for the winter.
“We are separating ourselves from them,” Highter said of the schoolgoing population. “A fence will go up between the teachers and kids and us.”
The renovation of the nurse’s office will likely happen during February break, Roach said, so demolition will not take place during the class time.
Roach said there are already plans in place for how classes will shift as the construction progresses. The nurse will temporarily relocate, and administrators will share an office for a period of time.
Dick Milius, chairman of the school board, said the rising cost of the project forced officials to abandon plans to redesign the main entrance by the school offices.
“When the bids came in, they were substantially higher than we budgeted for,” Milius said.
Because the project is using primarily pandemic relief funds and reserve funds, there is no impact to the tax rate.
Darren Marcy can be reached at dmarcy@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.