The Butler Area School District is continuing with the process of planning an expansion of, or addition to, the Senior High School.
Representatives of the district’s architectural contractor, IKM made a presentation to the school board outlining some ideas for an auxiliary gym, classroom addition, and locker-room reorganization.
A team of administrators and teachers has been assisting with the planning process to arrive at a pre-engineered metal building used mostly for physical education classes with collapsible seating for 350-400 spectators.
The classroom addition project would be constructed at the current site of the covered walkway at the Senior High and include STEAM space, a large group instruction area and possibly a connection to the 300 wing. This space is needed for reorganization that would see 9th grade students shifted to the Senior High.
According to Superintendent Dr. Brian White, nothing has been decided yet and a lot more information needs to be gathered including cost estimates before any decisions would be made by the board.
“I want everyone to hear very clearly that some of this may never come to fruition based off of student need and enrollment numbers. We’re studying this daily. No one truly knows how the pandemic will impact everything,” White said.
“We’re working on course registration over the next couple of months to try and guide us. Additionally, we have to be able to pay for it.”
The gym project could be put out to bid in April with an 8 month construction period beginning in May. The classroom addition project has more work necessary before going out to bid possibly in July which would put that on track for completion in August of 2022.
