STEELE CREEK NEWS
School Board Approves Plan that Includes Renovations at Olympic
(April
28,
2013) At its meeting last week, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
School Board approved a 2013 Capital Improvement Plan that places a
high priority on improvements to Olympic High School.
An addition and
renovations to Olympic High School costing $8,964,000 is ranked
second on the list of 18 projects in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools'
Three-Year Capital Improvement Proposal. The project
includes construction of a 20-classroom addition, the comprehensive
renovation of the auditorium, and improvements to the facility
condition, which will bring the campus to baseline while eliminating
portables.
The following is
from
A Closer Look at The Proposed 2013 Capital Improvement Program.
Additions and
Renovations: Olympic HS ($8,300,000)
Olympic HS is a 90
classroom campus constructed in 1965, and currently houses 2260
students in five small schools. Olympic has not received any work to
its educational buildings since 2000, and is well overdue for a
comprehensive renovation. The first step in this process will be the
construction of a classroom addition building to provide modern
science classrooms and “swing space” for the work to occur within
the main building. Updating of the auditorium will also be a focus.
The classroom addition will increase the school capacity and reduce
drastically the use of portables on the campus.
The Board of
Education is expected to present its 2013 bond request at the May 7
meeting of the Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners.
Before that time, staff will review the ranking criteria established
by the county for bond projects and may recommend revised rankings
or a different number of projects for the School Board's
consideration.
The county is likely
to place no more than $300,000,000 in bonds on the November ballot,
and that amount would be divided between Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools, and Central Piedmont Community College. County staff will
evaluate recommended school projects along with those from Central
Piedmont Community College based on their
Capital Ranking Process. Rankings resulting from that
process may be different from the ranking by the school system. The
2013 bond would fund projects to be constructed through 2016. A new
school bond is expected to be placed before the voters in 2016.
Improvements to
Olympic High School appear to have a good chance of being included
in a November 2013 bond issue, but nothing is certain at this point.
The School Board must make its bond recommendation to the county,
and the Board of County Commissioners must approve the final bond
package.
Among the projects
beyond the top 18 that will be considered for future bond issues is
a replacement school for Steele Creek Elementary School.
Projects to be funded
by bonds approved by voters in 2007 include construction of a new
stadium and field house at Olympic, which has not begun,
and the construction of a new
elementary school near the Palisades, which is in
progress. The new elementary school is expected to open in 2014.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools owns land that it plans to use for a future middle school
(on Steele Creek Road south of Hamilton Road) and a future high
school (next to the elementary school under construction), but
neither of those have a high enough priority to appear on lists of
projects being considered over the next few years.
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