Remodeling project underway at Royal Middle and High schools
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 3 months AGO
A power shovel takes a bite out of the old boys locker room at Royal High School. The locker rooms are being replaces as part of a $19.87 project to upgrade the high school and Royal Middle School.
Demolition left only the walls and subfloor at the Royal High School gym. The gym is being refurbished as part of a $19.87 million project to upgrade the high school and Royal Middle School.
Only the walls and subfloor are left after demolition in the Royal High School gym. The gym will get a new bleachers and a new floor as part of a $19.87 project to refurbish the high school and Royal Middle School.
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | December 16, 2020 1:00 AM
ROYAL CITY — Bleachers in the Royal High School gym are gone, so is one locker room and the footings are in for new classrooms at Royal Middle School.
Demolition is well underway and rebuilding has started on a $19.87 million project for upgrades at the Royal high and middle schools.
District superintendent Roger Trail updated Royal School Board members on the project, which began Oct. 26, during the regular meeting Monday.
Heating-cooling systems and electrical systems in both buildings will be upgraded. The project required moving the fiber optic lines that serve the entire district, Trail said, and there was some concern about that. But the relocation worked.
Some bathrooms at both buildings will be remodeled, and some of the site preparation for sewer and water lines has been completed.
Remodeling at RHS also will move one classroom and connect its existing wings. The RHS gym will get a new floor, new bleachers, and new locker rooms. The boys locker room has been demolished, along with the bleachers in the gym. A portable building already owned by the district is being used as a temporary locker room.
The old floor has been removed so the gym is down to the concrete subfloor. Trail said attempts to salvage the old floor didn’t work.
The project will add two classrooms at the high school, two at the middle school and include security upgrades, Trail said in an Oct. 21 interview. Footings were poured for the new RMS classrooms Monday.
The RMS office is being demolished in preparation for a complete remodel. The RHS entry is being remodeled as well and the front entrances will be the only way into each building.
People will have to buzz the office for entry. When the project is finished all four of the district’s buildings will have a buzz-in entry, Trail said.
Construction has discombobulated some of the classrooms at the high school and middle school, and one of the district’s portable buildings has been pressed into service as a classroom. Trail said the preparation of the portable was delayed, but the classrooms will open Thursday.
A project completion date was not provided by press time.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
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