1st set of school renovations anticipated to wrap up before kids return

On Aug. 8, kids around Homewood will pick up their backpacks for the first day of school. Based on current construction progress, those students will be walking through new, secure entryways into buildings where the first stages of renovation have been completed.

Homewood schools Assistant Superintendent Kevin Maddox said a number of the renovation and expansion projects at all five schools are set to be finished before the first day of school. This includes new entryways with security features – requiring all visitors to be buzzed in by the front desk – at every school, plus new classrooms and expanded band and choral space at Homewood Middle School and new carpeting, tile, paint and wallpaper at the elementary schools.

Homewood High School is expected to have demolition complete prior to the start of the 2018-2019 year, but construction on its new two-story addition on the north side of the building will not be underway.

“All of those are scheduled, and I use that word loosely, to be finished before school starts. Right now they’re on schedule,” Maddox said in mid-July, adding that the school system meets weekly to assess progress updates on the various projects.

During a tour of the construction zones, Maddox noted that the elementary schools were “happening spots” in terms of ongoing construction and renovation. At the middle school, former common areas and offices are being turned into new classrooms on all three floors, and they have a particular urgency to be finished on time. Maddox said around 11 new teachers have been hired for Homewood Middle School.

“So those classrooms have to be done because those teachers have to be somewhere,” HCS spokesperson Merrick Wilson said. “We have people going in those rooms.”

There has not been additional hiring at the other schools, Maddox and Wilson said, in part because a “bubble” of higher than average student enrollment is now starting to age into the middle school, so elementary enrollment is expected to trend downward slightly.

Maddox said changing these common rooms and offices into classrooms was a good use of the space because they were “under utilized” in their previous arrangements, as most teachers worked in their classrooms. HMS will also be able to add more lockers to those hallways.

Maddox said the middle school’s renovations were one example of the unique challenges in expanding schools. When they chose to move the middle school choir into the former wrestling practice room to open up space for the HMS band, Maddox said they had to be sure to design access to the former choral room that would fit band instruments of any size.

Wrestlers, meanwhile, will temporarily be without a practice space. The addition that will include a new wrestling practice room at the middle school is expected to wrap up in January, Maddox said.

“Wrestling doesn’t have a home until that addition gets finished, so they’ll probably practice at the high school this next fall,” he said.

Another new addition this fall will be the Raptor school security program, which will require scans of all visitors’ IDs in order to come into the building. Maddox said that program will likely start in September and will be similar to systems used in Vestavia Hills and Hoover school systems. Wilson said they are waiting until after the school year begins to make sure parents are aware of the program before it starts.

“That’ll be new for all of our parents this year,” Wilson said.

Up next for the school projects are the final bid packages, which include new cafeterias at Edgewood and Shades Cahaba elementary schools, classroom additions at all three elementary schools and the interior renovations and addition at Homewood High. Maddox said those projects are expected to be let out for bidding in late summer and early fall.