COLUMBUS, Ind. — While coming back to a school after a break is rarely easy, students in several grades at Parkside Elementary had something to look forward to, their first day in brand-new classrooms.
The school’s new kindergarten and sixth grade wings are now complete, said Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. Project Manager Greg Ferguson.
The two areas are just one part of a larger, school-wide renovation project, which is now moving on to Phase 3. Temporary walls have been put in place, and work is being done in an section of the building’s west side, behind the office.
“I believe that’s eight or nine rooms that we’re getting ready to go into,” said Ferguson. “That’s the, where the Forum used to be at, they’re already doing that demo in there. And that will take us all the way up until the end of the school year and should be pretty much ready by the end of the school year — obviously, kids won’t be in that area until the fall.”
Once complete, the Phase 3 area will feature a STEM lab, an emotional wellness space, a sensory room, offices for occupational and physical therapists, second and third grade classrooms, and two “activity commons” spaces for second and third graders.
Ferguson explained that each grade level will have an activity commons, which is “a shared space between all the teaching staff.”
Over the summer, work will include moving new furniture into completed areas of the school.
BCSC Director of Operations Brett Boezeman said in November that the Parkside project marks “the first of hopefully several renovations to our buildings in BCSC.”
For more on this story, including more photos, see Wednesday’s Republic.
