Portage school officials preparing for moving day

The old Portage Township Schools administration building will be the first to be demolished this spring when workers begin preparing to build the new Aylesworth Middle School.

The building, which most recently housed the IT team, is expected to be razed in April, Superintendent Amanda Alaniz said.

The construction site also includes two existing schools, Aylesworth Elementary School and Willowcreek Middle School.

This is the last school year for the primary school, which will be demolished once emptied. Willowcreek Middle School will remain until its replacement is ready for use, then demolished to make way for the rest of the project.

In total, the district is planning a $99.85 million construction project, not all of which is on this site, at the corner of Willowcreek Road and Central Avenue, Alaniz said. Construction bids were low enough that other projects on the district’s to-do list were fast-tracked, including HVAC work at other schools and moving a career and technical education program from Willowcreek to Portage High School.

Alaniz meets with Fanning Howey Architects to develop a list of projects ready for review and approval by the school board.

“We have a few things that are priority 1, but priority 1 can’t happen until the first domino disappears,” she said.

At Portage High School, the south cafeteria poses a challenge for food services staff due to limited space. This is one of the areas in which the architect is interested. “The equipment alone, as you can imagine, is extremely expensive,” Alaniz said, to the tune of about $2 million.

As the project gets closer to actual construction, the district is looking at what equipment can or cannot be salvaged from the elementary school.

Newer equipment, which still works well at Aylesworth, could replace older equipment at other schools.

Board member Jeff Smith said he hoped the playground equipment could be salvaged, but that’s not possible. It has aged, Alaniz said, and would likely not be structurally sound if moved. “It’s too risky,” she said.

“We are careful not to waste in any way,” Alaniz said.

As part of the project, classrooms are being realigned to transform Fegely Middle School into a middle school. New cafeteria furniture will be needed due to the increasing number of students. The school will also see four lunch periods instead of three.

Storage will also need to be increased there.

“It’s exciting, but it’s a little scary at the same time,” said school board President Andy Maletta.

“Fegely is going to be a little tight at first,” Alaniz said, but she expected that.

Some teachers might use carts for a year or two instead of having their own classroom, but the district’s demographic study shows enrollment will continue to decline, so that problem will disappear.

As the city adds subdivisions, what happens if the study is wrong, Maletta asked him.

Even razing Aylesworth and having one fewer elementary school, it would still be cheaper to operate an addition to another school rather than an entire school building, Alaniz said.

“We asked these kinds of architectural questions when we worked with Skillman Corp. “, the district’s contractor for the construction project.

On Monday, the board approved conducting a traffic study at the new school site. Instead of an entrance on Willowcreek Road, traffic will be directed onto Central Avenue.

Requiring a traffic study is common for any construction project of this size, Maletta said.

As the school nears completion, Alaniz and his team prepare faculty and staff for the start of construction.

“When that last day of school rolls around, it’s going to be a very short time before they’re mobilizing to get into that building,” Alaniz said, which is why teachers are now encouraged to make final decisions about what they want to move into their new classrooms elsewhere.

Teachers will get help getting their belongings out, Maletta said.

This school year, faculty have an extra work day to facilitate the big move.

Personal items that teachers can move, perhaps before the end of the school year. Furniture and other objects belonging to the municipality will be moved without the help of the teacher.

The district will likely hire movers to help with the project.

Get rid of the trash now, Alaniz urged, to reduce the amount that will have to be moved later.

Alaniz communicates with professors about what they can do now to make the final decision easier. “They’re all grateful for the digestible chunks of information,” she said.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.