Callaway School investing in future
CALLAWAY - One of the most important things any school can do is invest in the future, to make sure that it’s around for the next generation. One way of doing this is by taking on remodeling projects to help improve the school.
Callaway Public Schools is doing just this with four major construction projects being tackled throughout the summer. These include upgrading the special education room at the school, redoing the tile issues through the common way and the hallway, re-doing the restrooms in the elementary wing of the school and putting in double doors at the school entrance that will make Callaway ADA accessible for the first time.
“When we looked at the money we set aside we were actually able to do more projects than we originally thought we would be able to do this summer,” Superintendent Byron Hanson said. “They were in the same area and they kind of tied into each other so we decided to go ahead and tackle them all at once.”
Right now as you walk into the elementary end of the school it looks very different, with the exposed floor with no tile and a special education room and bathroom with no walls, just wooden frames where the walls are supposed to be.
The new special education room and the bathrooms will help further the Callaway Public School system in making sure they are ADA accessible and will also help increase the safety for the students.
“ADA and safety upgrades are very important,” Hanson said. “It’s going to be good for our students and the community.”
Originally Callaway wasn’t going to redo all the tile in the school. They have had issues with them for several years but were just going to do a little portion where the construction took place. That was until a bid came in to do the entire floor that the school couldn’t pass up.
“We were already going to have to do some re-tiling with the construction,” Hanson said. “We got a bid that fit into our budget to update and replace the old tiles throughout the building so we went ahead with it.”
The original bid to redo the tile floors was $33,000, but it was moved up to $39,713 when it was determined the chemical used to clean asbestos on the floor might eat away the tile. Because of this, Davenport, who is laying the tile, had to conduct a secondary cleaning of the floor.
With the installation of the new double doors at the front entrance of the school, Callaway will also be getting a security upgrade as well. This will include cameras and a new buzz in system for the secretaries for letting people into the building.
This is not the end of construction but only the beginning. According to Hanson, there are several different phases that the school has for construction projects to get taken care of over the next decade.
“We started with a team of teachers and we have a board, buildings, and grounds committee,” Hanson said. “We sat down and we identified about 23 to 24 building needs that we have. Heath Birkel, the principal, and myself took those list of items and put them into phases. Phase one was something to be completed in years one through three, phase two years four, five, and six, and phase three is six to ten years.”
For a school already good from a foundation standpoint, this will only add years to the school and make sure it’s around for the next generation.
“When I first came up here and took this job, one of the first things I noticed is this building has great bones,” Hanson said. “The building truly is in good shape.”
This is in large part due to the Callaway school board who have done a good job of staying on top of the different projects needed to make the school a better place to learn.
“Our school board has done a fantastic job,” Hanson said. “One of the most important things you can do constriction wise on a building is a roof. They have had a new roof put on in the last couple of years and they have done a great job of making sure our A/C units were updated on a rotation. Really those are two of your major cost.”
With a few of the construction projects soon to be out of the way for the 2020-2021 school year, Callaway Public School is well on its way to accomplishing the goal of making sure the school is around for generations to come.