By Nathan Prewett
For the Tribune
TRUSSVILLE — The Hewitt-Trussville Schools system has implemented big plans for the middle and elementary schools as students return for another school year. Among those plans are renovations to the middle school’s front office along with a storm shelter and additional class rooms at Cahaba Elementary.
CES will be adding nine class rooms as well as a community bathroom for what Neill said would be intended for large numbers of students. There will be individual bathrooms in the storm shelter as well.
“The storm shelters are required to have restrooms,” Neill said. “So four of those classrooms out of the nine will be inside of a storm shelter and they will have their own bathroom.”
The shelter is an addition to one already established at the school, giving it two storm shelters. The second accommodates a growing number of students that have recently enrolled. The school has approximately 500 students attending.
“The storm shelter construction is larger blocks,” Neill said. “It’s rebar down in the blocks, cement poured down into the block with the rebar in it. That’s what the storm shelter is. So these classroom walls look like cinder blocks – all nine of them do – but four of them meet the storm shelter requirements.”
Hewitt-Trussville Middle School’s front office has undergone extensive changes for security.
“We wanted the front office renovation at the middle school to equal the vestibule entrance at all the other schools,” Neill said. “For example: the vestibule entrance looks like this: when a person enters the door, they’re inside of a space that’s locked and they don’t have access to students.”
“At the high school you walk into the first set of doors and you check in with the attendance person and then she buzzes you into the building and that’s the same for Magnolia – you walk into the first set of front doors, you’re checked in and then you’re buzzed in. We’ll have that at the middle school. We didn’t have that before.”
CES also a received renovation to the front office but Neill said that it was a “slight” change as space for the front office secretary was moved closer to the entrance. The overall cost for the project was approximately $1.2 million.
Work on the middle school will go to bid in the near future before progress is made. The storm shelter at CES is expected to be completed by mid-October, Neill said.
“We’re in great shape,” she said. “We’re ready for the new school year in quality in all of our schools in terms of safety.”