Schenectady school project to get started

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Goot

Over spring break next week, construction workers will start a $9.7 million project to renovate Schenectady High School.

Workers will begin taking down some trees in the courtyard as they prepare to tear down the older classroom space that encompasses H wing. The school district is constructing a classroom addition on the back of the building. Superintendent of Schools Eric Ely said six of the classrooms will be state-of-the-art science laboratories with all of the appropriate water and gas hookups and other amenities.

“Right now, we’re pretty far behind in terms of science lab facility,” he said. “We just needed new science space to meet all the lab requirements of New York state.”

In late April or early May, they will set up some temporary modular classrooms to take the place of what the school is losing. The CISCO networking laboratory will be relocated to another area of the building. Ely said that most of the classrooms being demolished were just being used for storage because they were not conducive to learning.

In addition, there will be a new bus loop and parking built off the McClellan Street side of the building with a new entrance to the building. Students that ride the bus to school will either use this new entrance or the entrance to the fine arts wing.

“It’s really to try to get congestion off The Plaza and off those side streets in front of the building,” Ely said. “A number of those street are pretty congested in the morning.”

Also, the tennis courts will be rebuilt and moved slightly and the basketball court’s floor will be replaced.

“The gym floor has been sanded so many times it can’t be sanded any more; the nails are popping up through the floor,” he said.

This is part of the $48.2 million bond proposition that voters approved in 2007. Most of the construction projects are covered by state aid.

Construction would be completed in early January.

A proposed fence around three sides of the high school is not part of this project, Ely said. If the fence is done in a future phase of the project, Ely said, the district would put up a fence similar to the one it has in front of the Elmer Avenue school. It has shown this design to neighbors, who have been supportive, he said.