Beginning next summer on June 1st a two month construction project on room A-118 will begin. Currently it is used as a science classroom, it will be remade for use by the special ed department.
“Room A-118 has a lot of physical space,” said Principal Mark Miscke, “It is twice the size of a normal classroom, and was designed to be bigger when the school was being planned. This was to allow for alternative options on how the space could be used.”
Room A-118n will serve mostly as an “in house” room where special needs students will spend a majority of the day. Beyond that though, it is planned to serve 3 other purposes.
“This is providing a big opportunity for the school,” said Miscke, “It is going to be used as a resource area for students to have a quiet place to do and get help on homework, and make up tests. Also we will incorporate a speech/language area into the room.”
The whole project will cost $250,000. The funding came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the stimulus bill). The money won’t be used exclusively on for A-118. The ASD (Autism-spectrum disorder) classroom will be enlarged with the space made from the vacant special ed classrooms.
“This idea [construction of A-118] has been out there for awhile, but the county doesn’t have a surplus of funds for these projects. The stimulus provided a unique opportunity for us to move forward with construction.”
Paul Youngquist, who constructed Buffalo High School originally, was hired to oversee construction on A-118. Construction is scheduled to be finished by August 1st 2010.
