Graham Jaehnig/DMG A multi-functional concrete pad currently being installed will serve for a variety of student activities year round. The area will also have picnic tables.

Part One of a two-part series on the 2022 bond project construction.

HANCOCK — After approximately a year of planning, studying and designing, the Hancock Schools 2022 Bond Proposal projects are now well underway. The Projects included work at the elementary school campus.

Last August, the Barkell Elementary School’s new playground installation was completed, a week before the students returned for the new school year.

Also last year, in May, the final phase of the parking lot designs were completed the bidding process for the work was ready, but was delayed primarily because contractors were already busy for the summer. However, contracts were made for construction to begin in 2024, and are now well underway.

“The window of opportunity is, it is what it is,” said Superintendent Chris Salani. That window, he said, is a time frame of 11 weeks, from start to finish, for all projects.

That includes the construction of the middle school/high school parking lot, to reduce traffic flow to one way. The lot will remain accessible from Campus Drive, but will exit on Tomasi Drive, which will eliminate the student drop-off and pick-up congestion, Salani said.

“Our new exit point is out to Tomasi,” he said, “which will then lead to either Campus Drive or U.S. 41.”

Where the exit point meets Tomasi Drive, vehicles can only turn left. The section of the road to the right is privately owned, Salani said, and is not currently paved.

A concrete slab is currently being laid adjacent to the middle school/high school building that will serve as a year-round, multi-purpose area for everything human chess games, where people act as chess pieces, to a pickle ball court, to an ice rink in the winter.

“We had a rink on the eastern end of the building, at the end of the high school parking lot,” Salani said, “but it was uneven and had a number of other flaws.”

The bond proposal also included the additions of STEM labs in each building, including 3-D printers, VEX robotics, CAD/CAM stations, Mechatronics, Oculus virtual reality stations, engineering activity stations, programmable drones, electrical circuit stations, and instructional technology to promote student learning and discovery and to repurpose spaces that are currently underutilized. Construction has begun on those this summer.

Salani said all three sections of Hancock Schools campus have STEM labs. Barkell has a dedicated space, which was formerly the science and art rooms are being converted to a new STEM lab. In the middle school, the old computer labs in both the middle school and the high schools are being converted to STEM Labs.

Part Two of this series will look at the projects occurring at the Barkell Elementary campus.