FeedsSome classes in flux at Salem High
The classroom shuffle will be on when classes begin next week at Salem High School.
Construction at the school, part of the 2004 bond program, will force some classrooms to move during the school year.
“It’s a pretty complicated phasing system,” said Ken Jacobs, assistant superintendent of administrative services. “We’re trying to bring it in in blocks.”
Major building projects at Salem, West Middle School and several elementary schools will be complete in time for the beginning of classes, but they have not been without headaches. Several issues arose with a landscaping contractor, and the grounds at some of the schools will not be finished on schedule.
The firm overseeing construction, McCarthy and Smith, refused to allow the landscaper to begin work on the remaining schools in the contract.
“We have been working extensively with them, and not too much to the success level we would have like to have seen,” said Doug Underwood, a representative from McCarthy.
Said Jacobs on Tuesday: “That landscaper has received his seven-day notice and we are moving on and having that work done by other parties.”
Underwood said they rejected 65 pine trees deemed unsuitable and were in general dissatisfied with the level of work at two of the elementary schools involved.
Another unforeseen development involved stricter requirements from Wayne County for storm water detention at Gallimore Elementary School. The project architects, TMP Architecture, had to incorporate about 800 additional feet of 36-inch drainage pipe.
Board secretary Judy Mardigian called the development “troubling.”
“They build and design all over the place,” Mardigian said about TMP. “This to me seems like a major oversight.”
McCarthy said there was little that could have been done to prevent it, because the county became more watchful after the project began.
“They’re ramping up,” said McCarthy. “They’re starting to enforce this ordinance at a higher level.”
Total cost savings in current and future projects could be used to offset any extra money spent at Gallimore and elsewhere. Mardigian said the board would need to stay updated.
“This project, in my view, as long as I’m sitting here, cannot go over budget,” she said.
