School construction off to good, noisy start

Lockers slam. Students shout to other students across the hallway. Someone sings out loud.

This is typical junior high school noise.

But the past week, the noise at Southwest Junior High School, 2511 Inverness Drive, has been anything but typical.

Outside many classroom windows, large, rumbling, metal machines pick up large heaps of dirt and dig holes where students could get lost.

The first school bond construction project has begun.

“I think the students love it,” said Tom Bracciano, facilities and operations director for the Lawrence school district. “I’m sure the teachers are fed up already, but as a kid I don’t think anything’s more fun than looking out the window and seeing a bunch of guys with big equipment.”

A $54 million bond issue, approved by voters in April, is financing facility improvements at all junior high and high schools in Lawrence.

Southwest Junior High is the only school under construction right now, but Bracciano said he expected dirt-moving to start next month at Central Junior High School, 1400 Mass., and West Junior High School, 2700 Harvard Road.

Third-grade students at Sunflower Elementary School, Cole Greenwood, left, and Michael Heschmeyer, watch an earth mover working behind Southwest Junior High School during recess. During the past week the first school bond construction project has begun at Southwest Junior High School, 2511 Inverness.

Improvements at South Junior High School, 2734 La., and both high schools will follow.

“We’re so excited to have the project actually started, we’re not even paying attention to the noise,” said Trish Bransky, principal at Southwest Junior High.

The project is on schedule and $1 million under budget, Bracciano said. “We’re feeling pretty positive about where we’re at price-wise,” he said.

Despite concerns that Hurricane Katrina would push prices of construction materials and labor up, Bracciano says bids for most projects have come in lower than expected.

The financial cushion, he said, will be helpful when the largest construction project, re-building South Junior High, begins in May.

“A lot of the Maalox moments are gone,” Bracciano said. “There are more to come but when you see all this dirt moving, you start feeling like all this work for the past eight months is paying off.”

The entire project is expected to wrap up in August 2007, Bracciano said.