Texarkana Gazette

PGISD approves $3.2 million for high school addition

- By Andrew Bell

TEXARKANA, Texas — Pleasant Grove High School should have a brand new Career and Technical Education addition added to its campus before the start of next school year.

The district’s Board of Trustees approved a Guaranteed Maximum Price of just over $3.2 million for the CTE addition, which is expected to be completed by Aug. 1, 2023.

The plan features a two-story structure designed to tie in with and match the existing high school building, Superinten­dent Chad Pirtle said.

“We’ve been working on this really hard for a while to get to the point where we are right now, and we feel really good about where we are right now,” Pirtle said.

The lower-level features of the building will include:

• PGTV Studio complete with a studio, control room/classroom and sound isolating editing bays.

• Two Arts/av/ Communicat­ions labs for graphic design, animation and associated courses.

• Two engineerin­g classrooms with shared storage and collaborat­ive workspace.

• Robotics classroom with arena space as well as attached robotics engineerin­g constructi­on workshop.

The upper-level features will include a Health Science suite with four classrooms, including pass-through doors, surgical prep sinks and patient care simulation areas.

The area will be about 12,000 square feet

The plan uses existing building features like fire exit stairs and available IT space, allowing new constructi­on resources to be used for student learning spaces.

Pirtle praised Director of Operations Matt Fry for his involvemen­t in making the project come to fruition.

“The plans are drawn, and we’re champing at the bit. It’s ready to go. You’ll probably see ground being broken immediatel­y.”

The project will be paid for with $2.3 million from 2018 bond funds and roughly $900,000 from the district’s general fund balance

“Twelve of the 22 contractor­s are local contractor­s that will be working on this project. So, we’re proud of that and that was a desire of ours,” Pirtle said.

Groundbrea­king on the project is expected within the next couple of weeks.

 ?? Courtesy PGISD ?? ■ A rendering of the planned addition at Pleasant Grove High School.
Courtesy PGISD ■ A rendering of the planned addition at Pleasant Grove High School.

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