Many students, teachers and parents count down to the final day of the school year, the time when they can begin enjoying a short summer reprieve.
For Mike Blackerby and his staff in Glynn County Schools operations department, though, the clock starts ticking the moment the final school bell rings.
Summer break offers Blackerby, executive director of operations for the school system, and his team a chance to complete a substantial amount of construction work and other maintenance in facilities across the district.
“There’s a lot less people in the building so it’s easier to get work done,” he said. “But it puts a definite time crunch on things because that time clock starts the day the kids leave the building. And you have to have everything ready for the teachers to come back in and get things ready. That is a big block of time for us to get a lot of work done.”
The to-do list this summer isn’t short.
A new two-story school building is going up now at St. Simons Elementary. Artificial turf will be installed at three athletic fields. Significant ongoing renovations at three schools need to be done before the new school year begins. And then there’s all the comparably smaller jobs that need to be done in almost every school building, like paint touch-ups and electrical repairs.
McKnight Construction is overseeing the current work at St. Simons Elementary, which is being funded mostly through ESPLOST IV.
Construction of the school’s new two-story building is on schedule, Blackerby said. The structure will house classrooms and the media center, and it’s set to be completed by January 2023.
The next phase of work will be the demolition of other buildings on campus and construction of a new gym.
Other renovations are taking place over the summer at Golden Isles and Oglethorpe Point elementary schools and Needwood Middle School. This work is also funded through ESPLOST IV.
“Most of the classroom renovations have already been completed on those, and now the summer work is mainly contained around the media centers and the office areas at Needwood and Oglethorpe,” Blackerby said. “And at Golden Isles, since that building’s vacant … we’re working on the kitchen area. We’re remodeling the kitchen during the summer.”
Golden Isles Elementary students spent the past school year in the old Altama Elementary School building. The new Altama Elementary opened at the start of last school year.
Golden Isles students and teachers will move back into their school at the start of this year.
Work is also taking place at various athletic facilities, including the artificial turf installation at the Glynn County Stadium and Glynn Academy’s practice field. The installation will also begin soon at Brunswick High.
The Glynn County Board of Education voted in January to approve spending $3.7 million in ESPLOST III funding to install athletic turf grass at Glynn County Stadium and at practice fields at Brunswick High and Glynn Academy.
FieldTurf, USA, of Calhoun, Ga., is completing the work, which was originally set to be done by July 15 at Glynn Academy and at the other two fields by Aug. 15.
Supply chain issues have caused some delays on the artificial turf installation, Blackerby said, but the district is still on track to be done at the stadium before the first football game this fall.
Construction of an additional gym at Glynn Academy will also be substantially completed by the first day of school, Blackerby said, but full occupancy likely will not be possible until the end of August.
Looking over his project list, Blackerby said it’s been enough to keep everyone busy this summer.
“It does get us stretched thin at this time of the year,” he said. “While for most of the school system it can be a downtime, it’s really our busiest time.”