COAL TOWNSHIP - The bulk of interior renovation work at Shamokin Area Elementary School is expected to be completed by year's end.
Dave Petrovich, buildings and grounds supervisor, said Thursday that the administrative office should reopen after the Thanksgiving break and the cafeteria would reopen no later than after the Christmas break.
Both the administrative office and cafeteria are temporarily housed inside the school gymnasium, with office personnel set up on the gym stage, while an estimated $4 million renovation project continues.
The new kitchen equipment is on hand, but Petrovich said he will not reopen the cafeteria prematurely.
"Next week, we should open the library and be done with that," Petrovich said during a meeting Thursday of the district school board's buildings and grounds committee - Bob Getchey, committee chairman, Jeff Kashner and Brian Persing. Director Charles Shuey also attended.
Petrovich presented a slide show to committee members, explaining that work is progressing in offices and a break room, along with inside the cafeteria, where tile could be laid in about a week.
New pumps for the chillers have been installed and are operating, potable drinking water is now available in all classrooms and the temporary washing stations have been removed now that bathroom renovations have been completed.
A hot water tank recently arrived for installation; so have new interior doors.
Some cosmetic work remains on the bus loop outside the building's main entrance with vegetation to be planted Monday.
The roof replacement project that had begun but was put temporarily on hold will begin next spring. Petrovich said four to five weeks of work remains.
Petrovich said he's disputing any change order he deems unnecessary and has kept track of those he has approved and those he has turned down; a list he will present to board members.
He's happy with the project's progress, saying much of the work completed is mechanical in nature. He also credited the buildings and grounds staff for completing a significant amount of work in-house that was outside the renovation project's scope.
"For the money that we spent we got a lot of work done," he said.
Petrovich told board members that no asbestos was found anywhere in the building, such as on roof drains, pipes or boiler equipment.
Facility concerns
Committee members expressed concern and frustration over vandalism inside Kemp Memorial Stadium and alleged misuse of facility amenities.
The home locker room was renovated over the summer, with new lockers installed and fresh paint applied.
Petrovich showed photos of the home locker room where the full names or nicknames of players, some with jersey numbers, were scrawled in black marker inside bathroom stalls.
"Their names are on the walls, so we know who's doing it," Persing said.
A toilet in the visiting locker room also had a name marked on it, which Petrovich said was subsequently cleaned off.
Photos of the toilets in the home locker room showed them backed up, perhaps intentionally, but also could have been caused by continual use - a foul sight and unsanitary situation.
District staff were required to twice clean out the backed-up toilets of human waste.
Getchey said coaches must be held accountable for the actions of their players, perhaps going as far as suspending a coach if vandalism continues.
Committee members agreed that coaches must be held responsible, as did Rick Kashner, athletic director. Some said the onus for proper behavior and respect also falls on the student-athletes, especially the juniors and seniors alleged to be involved - those who are old enough to know better.
"There has to be some responsibility put on the shoulders of these kids," Shuey said.
Shuey said a district student was cited for an unrelated act of vandalism that occurred Thursday in a junior-senior high school bathroom.
Jeff Kashner said corrective action for these types of behavior must start at home.
Getchey said the district has long been too lenient on student-athletes and that he would seek punishment for those responsible for vandalism, which includes whomever may have been responsible for breaking a press box window in the hours following a recent home game.
The three-member committee and Shuey all agreed that members of the football team should be ordered to repaint the locker room in places where the walls were marked with names.
There are also issues with the number of vehicles parked inside the stadium during district football games and youth football games, along with an alleged abuse of privilege for the public address system. Getchey said music is being blared Sunday mornings and disrupting nearby residential neighborhoods.
Getchey said stadium lights have been left on for three hours on Sundays during youth games, which he said is too long. While he's unsure of the exact cost, he said the district - despite a nominal donation from the city's youth league - foots the bill.
Petrovich suggested all coaches, those from the district and those from youth leagues, meet with the athletic committee prior to each season to review rules and regulations for facility use.
All agreed that some corrective action is basic common sense.