There’s a lot going on in terms of renovations around the school. Two of us on ‘The Patriot’ staff had the unique opportunity to tour the areas under the guidance of Director of Facilities Joe McGrain.

Both Photography Editor Gabby Albright and I were required to wear hard hats in the construction zone, which was exciting to us. Immediately walking behind the curtains, we were engulfed into the construction site with toolboxes and tools, ladders, panels, pipes, ceiling tiles down, and more.
This view of the building was so unique to see compared to our normal student perspective that we see every day in the average classroom.

It was officially time to begin our tour.

“Immediately after school ended, we cleared out the rooms and started on the renovations,” Mr. McGrain said. “We are looking to have students reoccupy these spaces by October/November.”

Mr. McGrain brought us to the roof and showed us the newly-completed air conditioning system. This system was installed to eliminate the window air conditioning units for the first six rooms being renovated.

To utilize these systems, chimneys were installed down through some of these rooms to ventilate the air. A part of the long-term renovation plans includes adding this type of air conditioning throughout the rest of the academic wing, but the timeline for that is undetermined.

From there, we continued to the third-floor rooms being renovated, included the new piping for the plumbing needed for the air conditioning.

In addition to this, new eye washing stations are already up and running and have been added to a few of these rooms.

Mr. McGrain explained that most of the renovations and additions done on the third floor were completed over the summer including the chimneys that “bring in air or return air for the new air conditioning.”

Next, we moved to the second-floor renovations. This is where several science teachers have been displaced from their normal rooms. Four teachers have been moved to other locations due to the renovations.

Two sets of rooms are being combined to create new chemistry labs. These rooms now appear to be much more open, but the logistics of where these teachers are being moved is still being determined.

The next project for the second floor wing after occupying the current rooms being renovated will be 220 being renovated as a normal classroom while rooms 213 and 211 will become additional labs.
With every project comes potential setbacks, Mr. McGrain said this projects setback involved the casework. “COVID still delaying supply chain issues, things saying they are going to come on time and don’t.”

The new predicted time of arrival of supplies is early October.

After the academic wing, Gabby and I were brought to the auditorium. The goal for these renovations is to make the auditorium into a space “more universal than only Performing Arts.”

The plans or vision for the auditorium is posted right outside the doors. The idea or goal for this renovation is to make this space into a more academic purpose including lectures. Renovations to this area include new carpeting. In the aisle ways, there will be hardwood under the seats. Additionally, there will be new seats, new curtains, drop down screens/projectors and white paint onto the ceilings and walls.

Hardwood floors were added on the day of the tour, but the completion date of this project is still unknown.

The final location of our tour was though the counseling wing. The counseling offices had the addition of new flooring and furniture to keep it more “consistent” between the rooms.

The new deans moved into the old IT offices where the conjoining room had all cabinets removed with chairs and couches added to make a waiting space. Each dean has their own room in the rooms off to the sides.

Our tour concluded there. We would like to thank Mr. McGrain for taking the time to show us around so that we could share the information in this issue of the newspaper.