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News Archive: July - December, 2007

• 12/14/2007
  Phase Four:  The library should be operational in early January, with a Media Center Ribbon Cutting & Open House scheduled for Sunday, January 13 from 2 pm to 4 pm. The north-south connecting link should be operational when the second semester begins on January 3. There are still several unoccupied classrooms on the first floor of the main building as the HVAC renovations near an end, and several of the renovated classrooms now in use are very hot and uncomfortable, reportedly because the system has not yet been balanced.
• 12/7/2007
  Phase Four:  The library now has furnishings and books are being moved in. There is a new rotating view of the library's main room.
  
  As the HVAC renovations wrap up, about half of the first floor classrooms are now back in use.
  
  Phase Three:  The Board of Education approved a $62,700 bid from Green Country Interiors to install ceiling clouds in the new Field House to improve its acoustics by reducing reverberation. This should reduce the garbling of voices over the loudspeaker system. Installation may occur in February.
• 11/18/2007
  Phase Four:  The construction projects are approaching completion, and should wrap up before Winter Break.
  
  Library:  The library is ready for furnishings. A new custom circulation desk has been installed. The former stage area, which will be used for computer terminals, has new flooring that matches the wall decoration. There is a new rotating view of the library's main room.
  
  HVAC:  Most of the rooms on the second floor of the main building are back in use, and the corridor ceiling is back in place. Renovation of the first floor HVAC systems continues. The entire system should be complete and balanced in a few weeks.
  
  Stadium/Annex Link:  Both the upper level and the lower level of the two-story link that connects the stadium and annex is open and almost complete. There are new rotating views of the upper level, the lower level, and the north facade.
  
  Long North-South Link:  The east facade of the link between the north and south buildings is almost complete. The link is still closed, however, because of screws protruding into its interior. The interior panels are finally going up, so the link should be open in a few more weeks.
• 11/6/2007
  Phase Four - Library:  Carpet was installed in the new library today.
• 11/1/2007
  Phase Four - Projected Completion Dates:  The phase four projects will be completed soon. By 11/9 the HVAC in most of the upstairs classrooms in the main building will be completed and those rooms will be back in use, with all upstairs classrooms hopefully in use by 11/16. By Thanksgiving all of the main building classrooms should be complete and operational.
  
  The library is scheduled for completion this month as well. The last phase of the project to wrap up will be the connecting link between the north and south buildings, which should be operational sometime in December.
• 10/28/2007
  Phase Four - Library:  Finishing touches are being put on the window wall for the new link between the main foyer and the annex. Soon multihandicapped students will be able to move into a newly remodeled classroom in the middle floor of the annex, an area that has never before been handicapped accessible. The library approaches completion with additional painting, the installation of the wooden floor in the technology area, and the ramp into the side annex. Take a look at the rotating view.
• 10/13/2007
  Phase Four - Library:  The window wall frame has been installed for the ramp that will link the main foyer to the middle floor of the annex. This will finally make that part of the 1958 annex handicapped accessible and soon multi-handicapped students will begin attending classes at BHS in a newly remodeled large classroom in that area. The curving window wall will form part of the north end of the new library.
• 10/4/2007
  Phase Four Projected Completion Dates:  The current projected date for Shiloh Enterprises to complete the new heating & air conditioning systems is the end of October. Delays are routine, so one might guess that many classes could be relocated back into the main building for the second semester.
  
  Gorman Construction's projected completion date for the remodeling of the auditorium into a library and the connecting link to the south buildings is mid-November. Again, delays are endemic but hopefully those facilities will be in use by the second semester as well.
• 10/1/2007
  Phase Four:  We open October with a bunch of construction updates:
  
  Library:  The main foyer has its south wall opened up for a future corridor into the middle level of the annex and the entrance to the new library. A new level floor was installed in the future library. You can see that the new floor height reaches halfway up the old exterior doors of the auditorium. There is a comparison of the original and new floor heights.
  
  The alumni room and librarian office are now carpeted. The library annex now has carpet, doors, and a clock. There are rotating PixArounds of the library and library annex.
  
  Conference Rooms:  The old conference room has shrunk to half of its former size to allow an adjacent restroom to be enlarged. The new conference room overlooking the future library is almost complete. You can enjoy the view with a conference room PixAround.
  
  Restrooms:  The new expanded men's restroom and women's restroom on the first floor of the main building are complete. There are final rotating views with the men's restroom PixAround and the women's restroom PixAround.
  
  Links:  There is now a ramp leading from the foyer to the middle level of the annex. The replacement for the quantum tunnel is open, linking the main building's second floor to the middle level of the annex.
  
  The new bridge linking the annex and stadium is enclosed. Its upper level is not yet open, so the lower level is heavily used to access the stadium classrooms. There are rotating views of the upper and lower levels.
  
  The connecting link is still closed, since the exterior finish installation has lined its interior walls with sharp screws. There are views of the exterior finish work on the link's west and east sides.
  
  Other:  The former French & Spanish rooms have been linked into a new classroom for multihandicapped students.
• 8/28/2007
  Fine Arts Center Recognized:  The Fine Arts Center has been selected for inclusion in American School and University magazine's 2007 Architectural Portfolio, which will be published in late November. The project was selected in the category "Outstanding Buildings: Specialized Facilities." The Fine Arts Center will also be featured in the "Explore the Gallery" section of SchoolDesigns.com in January or February, 2008.
• 8/9/2007
  Relocations for 2007:  Ongoing construction has delayed enrollment, inservice, and the start of classes at BHS. When classes finally begin on August 20, the bottom and middle floors of the 1954 stadium and all three floors of the 1958 annex should have new operable air conditioning. However, the 20 classrooms to the north of the office areas in the 1939 main building (rooms 106-109, 113-119, 206-209, and 213-219) will not be used as their air conditioning will not yet be operable. Consequently many classes will be relocated for the first semester to classroom areas of the stadium, annex, old & new field houses, fine arts center, and science wing. The corridors, lockers, and restrooms in the main building will be accessible but those areas will not have air conditioning. By the second semester the main building should become fully usable.
• 7/22/2007
  Phase Four:  With three weeks remaining before school should resume, most of the campus is still in disarray. Masonry is underway on the second floor of the connecting bridge and the underground piping from the new central plants to the older buildings is visible. Broadband visitors can see a rotating view of the bridge upper level. Large ceiling HVAC units have been installed in the annex and the stadium. Work continues in the expansion and renovation of the first floor restrooms for men and for women. The link is still stalled out, but a noticeable change is the cutting down of the big tree north of the science wing, which died this year after many years of service. Finally, outside the scope of the bond work, two of the old foreign language classrooms in the annex are being combined to form a large special ed room for students with multiple severe handicaps.
• 7/1/2007
  Phase Four:  July begins with a flurry of photographs on various projects:
  
  Library:  The tarp is down so you now see from the foyer into the library and from the library out. Up in the balcony, glass has been installed in the windows of the new conference room and corridor. The technology area's decorative wall is going up. Broadband visitors can enjoy rotating views of the library and conference room.
  
  Restrooms:  The old south women's restroom and west half of the conference room have been merged to form a new men's restroom, while the remainder of the conference room is being readied for other uses. The old north men's restroom and finance office have been merged to form a new women's restroom.
  
  Link:  The floor has been poured for the upper level of the link between the annex and the stadium. There is a nice view from there of the long connecting link to the field houses and fine arts center. Broadband visitors can enjoy a rotating views of the link's upper and lower levels.
  
  HVAC:  Most of the main building looks like a disaster area. The ceilings have been ripped out in the corridors and the classrooms. The demolition in the old choir room is rather striking. Some of the defunct fan units from the 1960s clog the corridors. One snag is that a new air handler won't arrive until a month after classes begin, so alternatives are being considered - Bartlesville's average highs in August are a blistering 94 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Please direct any comments or suggestions regarding this page to:
Granger Meador, Bartlesville High School
gmeador@bps-ok.org