Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 09/99) - While students and staff of Sir John high school abandoned their classrooms during spring break, Clark Builders took advantage of the break to gear up their work renovating the school.

When students returned to school they found a temporary plywood wall running down the corridor along NACC. The wall has narrowed the corridor a bit, but it is shielding the traffic from the dusty construction going on behind.

This area of the construction zone, including the washrooms, teachers' lounge and classrooms, was the hardest hit when a whole new extension was blasted into the rock-face. The extension will be part of the learning centre and guidance offices which will be completed along with the school's other renovations by August this year.

Another large extension project began over the break with the construction of the new front entranceway to the gym and an addition to the first and second floor in front of the gym. The addition on the first floor will accommodate new washrooms and change rooms. The second floor will incorporate the old science labs and transform them into a fitness area with a view overlooking the gym.

Project officer, Ed Andrews, explained that rather than walling the second floor classrooms up again and trying to block out the noise of the gym, the fitness room was a better use for the space.

"This is a way of addressing the problem of noise transfer, by turning this whole area into a facility that complements the gym," said Andrews. Andrews, who has taken on a job in New York, has handed the project over to the new project officer, Dave Waite.

"It (the open view) would provide an additional viewing area where they could put bleachers up there as well as the bleachers area below."

The gym itself will undergo minor renovations over the summer and the entire space including the first and second-floor additions will be ready for use when students and staff come back in August.

The only major disruption to classes this year was when renovations began in the classroom wing beside the NACC parking lot in January. Students and teachers had to move their classes out of the wing and into Akaitcho Hall and portables.

Andrews said the renovations to the wing and those that started over the March break are on schedule and the uprooted classes will be able to move back into the wing by August.

"That wing needs to be completed by early August so that the school can move in and start their new programs their by the end of August," said Andrews. "We tend to co-ordinate this activity (construction) in tune with the terms. The March break gave us an opportunity to move into another area and do the messiest demolition work."

The school will continue to undergo renovations in different areas with little uprooting of classrooms or offices until the last phase of construction in January, 2000.

Between January, 2000 and August, 2000, there will be major renovations to the entire section of classrooms on top of the hill where the current library is located. The library will be demolished and new classrooms, including three lounges and a separate section for French immersion, will be constructed.

The administration offices in the main building will also be renovated starting in January, 2000, and temporarily moved into Akaitcho Hall.

"It's hard because January, 2000, they are going to have to move out of (the classrooms on the hill) and turn it over to the contractor," said Andrews. "There are 12 teaching spaces there now, so they will be looking for all the classroom space they can find. They might have to look at using some of the portables as well as Akaitcho because the portables aren't being used as much as they could be."

When all the renovations are complete, Andrews said the portables will not be necessary, so they will be removed and Akaitcho Hall will be demolished.