The demolition at Warren Area High School has begun.

A construction project of about $14 million will follow, according to Warren County School District Director of Buildings and Grounds Services Dr. Norbert Kennerknecht, though the district has not finalized plans nor bid the project.

Working on demolition and asbestos abatement prior to the awarding of the bid prevents the district from falling behind schedule.

“Typically the general contractor does the demolition,” Kennerknecht said. “We’re not losing any time. We really are on track.”

The high school was built in 1960 and “there was never a major renovation,” he said.

The north wing of classrooms is shut down and will remain that way through the 2015-2016 school year.

The auditorium and stage have been turned into additional classroom space – nine or 10 mostly math classrooms – a mathatorium. The library will temporarily occupy a large portion of the stage.

The lights in the new classrooms in the auditorium were brought in from Youngsville. A contractor who installed the wrong color light pole at Eisenhower High School agreed to provide a number of LED lights for Youngsville High School instead of having to make the pole the right color.

The lights replaced at YHS will be used in the WAHS renovation, Kennerknecht said.

The office suite near the old main entrance is now just a big open space and new office spaces are being constructed in the cafeteria. The existing kitchen and food service line will remain open for the coming year. Students will eat in the gymnasium and lunch tables will be stored in the gym equipment room and set up and put away each day. Gym equipment is being put in storage containers.

Prior to the start of the school year, a partition will be built allowing students to travel the main hall to and from the gymnasium and cafeteria without having to interact with workers in the office suites area, Kennerknecht said.

The art complex is being completely demolished.

An asbestos abatement crew is at work. Areas where asbestos containing materials are being disturbed are sealed off and set up with negative pressure so particles do not float out. When the work is complete, air test results must be within acceptable tolerances before the areas will be unsealed.

The “outside skin” of the entire building will be replaced, Kennerknecht said.

Rain water, solar power, and geothermal energy will be used to reduce some of the building’s utility usage. Geothermal energy will not heat and cool the entire building. “We’d need about 150 wells to do the whole building,” Kennerknecht said. There will only be 12 wells in the project.

With those enhancements and the general improvements to the entire building, “we’re expecting our energy costs to be really down,” he said.

The new main entrance to the building will be next to the auditorium. The old Room 100 – a large space often used for study halls will eventually become the new library.

The mosaic dragon that forms a large portion of the outside wall of that room will be moved. Recent discussions have revolved around putting the feature outside, Kennerknecht said.

There are three modular-classroom buildings – a total of four classrooms – ready to ease the space pressure caused by the renovation.

The large, open-ended courtyard between the north and south wings will be closed off at the east end. A student suggested a connecting corridor between the east ends of the two wings. That idea was incorporated in the plans and, with the loss of Room 100, large group instruction areas were needed. The corridor and LGI rooms will close off the courtyard.

Changes are also underway at Warren County Career Center.

The former school board meeting room is being set up to accommodate the new nursing program and spaces across the hall will become a life skills suite, including accessible restroom and shower.

The second phase of the work will renovate the south wing.

The auditorium is the third and final phase and Kennerknecht said the project is expected to be complete in December of 2017.

Along the way, several projects will be ongoing. The gym will be renovated – new bleachers, floor, and basketball hoops, and all-new LED lighting – during the summers. The upper gym will also be renovated.

“We’re going to be going out for a bond,” Kennerknecht said.

The Qualified Zone Academy Bond – QZAB – would provide low- or no-interest funding in the amount of $8,449,000.

“The public will certainly benefit from not having to pay 3 or 4, even 5 percent interest,” Kennerknecht said. “We’re hoping we can apply and get more QZAB funds for this project in the near future.”

Renovations to Warren County Career Center are “on the horizon,” Kennerknecht said. “We’re looking forward to some positive changes up here. It’s going to be a wonderful campus.”

“I’m impressed with the cooperation we’re getting from the faculty and administration of both buildings,” Kennerknecht said. “We couldn’t do anything without the board’s help. It’s their project. They’ve put a lot of time into it. They’ve thought it through.”