The Edmond Sun

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August 12, 2006

New construction to greet students this fall

Justin Martino

EDMOND — Although West Field Elementary School may be the most noticeable new construction project for Edmond Public Schools, it’s just one of the many new additions and renovations that recently have been completed or are in the works.

Bret Towne, director of operations for Edmond Public Schools, said the district has been working on numerous projections, including adding artificial turf at all three high school stadiums, new locker room facilities at Memorial and Santa Fe, finishing up a fire suppression system at John Ross Elementary, and additions to the media center and parking lot at Memorial.

In addition, Centennial Elementary School, which will open next fall, is currently under construction, and other projects will begin soon.

“We’ll be working at Will Rogers starting in September with a classroom addition and remodeling,” Towne said. “We’ll probably start construction of the freshman academy at Memorial toward the end of September or first of October.”

Edmond students return to class Aug. 21.

Many of the new projects added to or improved athletic facilities at the schools.

“We’re super excited about the turf, obviously,” said Mike Nunley, athletic director for the Edmond school district. “It’s a tremendous advantage for us athletically in that it makes our facilities state of the art. It will provide our students with a safe and outstanding place to play football.”

Safety is one of the big advantages of the artificial turf. With the current water shortages in the area, it would be difficult to maintain natural grass to keep the fields safe for practice and games.

“There’s not enough water to put on those fields to make them a safe environment,” Nunley said. “They’d look really good until the first practice.”

The artificial turf, which cost about $1.7 million to install, also will save money over time, as the grounds crew will have to do less work and use less people to keep the turf in top condition and the fields will require less recovery time between use.

“Financially, we’re going to save money in the long term,” Nunley said. “We can free up those individuals who do a great job taking care of the football fields and they can work on the softball fields or other natural grass fields.”

Nunley also said the addition of the field house at Memorial was a great improvement for the district.

“It gives us three of the nicest field houses in the state of Oklahoma,” he said. “It’s a compliment to our district and patrons to have the foresight to do that.”

West Field, which cost about $8.5 million in the first of three stages of construction, will need about $6 million in future classroom additions. Centennial will cost just under $10 million in this phase of construction.

Adding classrooms in the district will become a priority for Edmond in the future because of the sustained growth of the Edmond school district. Currently, around 600 students a year are entering into the district.

“Primarily, our focus is shifting to classrooms over the next few years,” Towne said. “We won’t be doing nearly as much remodeling. We’ll be adding spaces for classrooms.”

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