NPHS renovation slowed by delays

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Officials with New Palestine High School say they are behind on their $43 million construction project. Monday, June 13, 2022.

Tom Russo | Daily Reporter

NEW PALESTINE — While there is significant progress on the $49 million renovation project at New Palestine High School, officials say construction is several months behind.

The school’s new cafeteria and new educational wing with two floors for 18 classrooms will not be finished for students and teachers at the start of the 2022-23 school year on Aug. 2 as officials had hoped.

“Sometimes you get unlucky and you start a project right before a global pandemic,” Southern Hancock community relations director Wes Anderson said. “It’s going to be a few more months on those areas.”

The Board of School Trustees of the Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County approved the concept for the major renovation in March 2019. At the time, no one had a clue a pandemic was looming. Still, district officials have remained optimistic and have persevered, getting as much of the multi-phase project completed as possible through COVID and supply issues.

Superintendent Lisa Lantrip noted the community has been understanding when it comes to the delays and supporting the renovation project.

“We appreciate our community’s understanding and support throughout this project,” she said in an email to the Daily Reporter. “While each project has its own challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic and massive supply chain shortages have made this renovation incredibly difficult.”

Lantrip noted district teachers and students have been flexible and resilient throughout the process.

“We are eager to have this project complete and excited to have a high school our community can be proud of,” she said.

The plan originally called for students to be able to move out of the temporary classrooms in the new fieldhouse and into the new classroom wing this fall, but thanks to delays, students will start the school year in August the same way they ended it in May, in temporary classrooms inside the new fieldhouse.

While the project has come a long way with the new cafeteria walls going up and the cement walls in place on the new 18-classroom wing, it’s not work students, staff or the community can really notice until complete. Despite the appearance of not much getting done this past school year, Anderson said crews have been working hard on many separate pieces of the project in spite of delays.

“There are a few factors for the delays,” Anderson said. “One of them is the supply chain — it’s very irregular.”

Anderson said they’ve been waiting on electrical and plumbing material that should be coming in soon and could get the project rolling with some real headway. He pointed to contractors and their subcontractors having other projects as another factor.

“So they’re kind of bouncing around from place to place,” Anderson said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, you guys don’t have any stuff for us, so we’re going to go work over here for a few weeks and we’ll be back,’ so that’s been a big piece of it.”

Anderson noted any big construction project is going to have issues and delays and that the NPHS renovation, which basically has nine major segments, is no exception.

“You open a wall and we’ve seen things that were not supposed to be there, so you have to adjust,” Anderson said.

One area of the project that has made good headway over the past few months is the new industrial tech and robotics room, which is located in the back of the building near the auditorium. It’s nearly three times the size of the current classroom and isn’t far from being finished. With so many students wanting to learn vocational skills, district officials felt the addition of this new segment to the school would be a plus.

“We’re actually hiring a second industrial tech teacher,” Anderson said. “This is all based on need — so many kids wanting to learn a work skill.”

Walking through the school’s auditorium, near the band area, Anderson pointed out, this as another section that still needs to be worked on. Once the new cafeteria is complete, the old cafeteria will become the new band room, and the old band room will become a choir room.

The creation of the school’s new student gathering area, where the old athletic offices are located needs to be constructed as do the new guidance offices just to the north of the new entrance. The guidance offices will be the last piece of the project to be completed. Anderson said they are not sure when that part of the work will begin. Original plans called for the multi-phase project to be completed in 2024. Anderson said they might still make it, but on the backside of the year.

“We’d love to be on time, but look around. No construction project is on time anywhere,” Anderson said.