FAYETTEVILLE — The Fayetteville School Board Thursday heard reports on the construction of Happy Hollow Elementary School and Fayetteville High School, adjourning 10 minutes after the gavel opened the meeting at 5 p.m.
It was one of the shortest meetings of the board in recent memory.
Architect Ron Shelby of Hight Jackson Associates in Rogers said bids for site preparation at the high school will be opened Tuesday and the board will receive a report at a special meeting next Thursday.
Nabholz Construction Co. is set to begin demolition of Bates Annex the first week in August, Shelby said.
Superintendent Vicki Thomas praised the district’s maintenance department for its work to prepare Bates for demolition as the high school transformation project shifts into a higher gear.
In an earlier interview, David Tate, the district’s maintenance director, said crews had spent the first few weeks after school was let out in June to “cannibalize” the building by removing light fi xtures, door locks, doors, cabinets and other parts, bathroom fixtures, which can be reused in other buildings.
“We’ll use these things for parts to save money in the budget,” Tate said.
Between 400 and 600 light fixtures were salvaged, he said. Each fixture costs between $50 and $55 each, resulting in a savings of at least $20,000, figured at $50 each for 400 fi xtures.
The items are being stored in district-owned facilities, Tate said.
In addition to preparing Bates for demolition, maintenance crews moved furniture to the former WestCampus building on Old Farmington Road where the alternative learning center will hold classes until its new space is built in the renovation.
The students’ television station and television production classrooms will be housedin the Ray Adams Leadership Center, sharing that space with the school board.
“They did an incredible job,” Thomas said, referring to the maintenance department.
Turning its attention to Happy Hollow, the board heard from Kent Doughty, project manager, whoexplained how some of the environmental issues will be dealt with during construction.
Cement debris, left from pouring the building footers, will be trucked to Big Red Dirt Farm, west of Fayetteville. Receptacles will be placed at the site for recycling other construction debris,such as steel or wood.
Trees that needed to be removed from the site were made into mulch, some of which was given away and other amounts were kept to be reused during the construction phase, Doughty said.
A new Happy Hollow school is being built on a 33-acre site northeast of thecurrent building. The next school should be fi nished in time for the start of school in 2011.
The fi rst phase of the high school and the Happy Hollow project are financed by a lowinterest $53 million Qualifi ed School Construction Bond issue. Bonds were sold with a 2.5 percent interest rate.
News, Pages 1 on 07/23/2010