Progress has been made on two Cumberland County school building projects, with one almost off the design table and another one near completion.

Last Thursday, the Cumberland County Board of Education received updates on the projects for the Baker's Crossroad Elementary School and Phoenix/Alternative School.

"We have made a lot of progress over the last month, and I think we're ready to formally submit a schematic design to you for review," said Uplands architect Kim Chamberlin regarding the elementary school.

During his presentation, Chamberlin showcased the preliminary site plan and floor layout for the school. He mentioned little changes have been made to the concept plan that the board previously discussed.

The plan still depicts a two-story building with classrooms for pre-K through third grade on the first floor and for fourth through eighth grade on the second. The main entrance will remain off Highway 70, and two access points will be available on Cartertown Road.

The floor plan includes a security vestibule in the administration suite in the front of the building to act as an entrance when the main doors are locked down throughout the day.

"The security vestibule will be very similar to the one at Stone Memorial High School," he said.

Through the vestibule, visitors will be led to a reception area before given access to the rest of the building. The adminstration suite will also include a nurse station, several storage areas and offices for the principal, attendance officer and other personnel.

Placed to the right of the suite will be the main lobby, public restrooms, a music room and a multipurpose room that measures approximately 5,000 square feet to accommodate the size of the student body.

"In lieu of a full-blown auditorium, the committee decided to go with something a little more multipurpose, a little more feasible for the building," explained Chamberlin. "So this really becomes a facility gym, a performance base, kind of everything combined into one."

Located nearby would be the gym, measuring 10,000 square feet and equipped with curtains to allow three classes to simultaneously take place, he noted. A standalone football locker room/storage area will be placed on the outside of the gym.

The school's library and media center will be placed across the hall from the gym and the administrative suite. Chamberlain said plenty of discussion took place on how to make the room an integral part of the school.

Other features include three distinct playgrounds throughout the site, two drop-off points in front of the building, a separate drop-off point for the pre-K program in the back and athletic fields in front of the property to make them more accessible for visitors.

The total square footage of the building comes to 107,345. As a comparison, he mentioned Brown Elementary School's square footage is only 85,000.

"We're up in size somewhat, but it's a larger building. We have more classrooms in it and got a few more things [like] the multipurpose room," he said.

Confident there should be no difficulty using the property, Chamberlin said he could "definitely guarantee" that no flooding will occur in the school's parking lot. The building will be placed on the higher part of the property, and water will naturally flow away from the building, he explained. Plus, a drainage system would most likely be set up to allow rainwater from the roof to escape underground.

He admitted there are several details that still needed to be worked out, such as choosing the equipment for the kitchen and deciding whether to fence off the entire school or just certain areas.

"This is very pretty much a schematic design, but I think it is a step process," he said. "We're at the point now that we need to know if we're missing stages."

Although several of the board members appeared to like the plan, Chamberlin suggested they spend some time reviewing the design before any more actions are taken.

"We would like to kind of hold here, I think, until we know we're ready to move forward," he said. "There's a lot of effort that we need to put into this because of the sustainability issues."

During the facilities update, County Engineer Eric Newman informed the board of the progress that has been made at the Phoenix/Alternative School.

He estimates the school could be completed by the end of August thanks to the good weather the county has been experiencing. The masonry work is near completion, the roof has been installed and workers have started the electrical and mechanical work.

Newman mentioned there have been "no issues on this job whatsoever," except for a slight delay during the site preparation. He explained the contractor discovered a huge stream that had to be forced away from the building. There should be no additional cost because it was considered an "unclassified job," he noted.

According to Director of Schools Aarona VanWinkle, Newman will be paid $5,757 for his work on the project. This is six percent of the total amount budgeted for the county building projects for school, jail and library.

"In our resolution, I think it was our intent to have the county hire an engineer to oversee all of this stuff and we wouldn't have to pay on a percentage basis," said Orville Hale, 8th District representative.

VanWinkle stated she never expected the county commission to pay for someone to oversee the BOE's building project.

"We have to pay the county $80,000 to dump our garbage in the county landfill and that's coming out of instructional money…I never thought the county would pick up that cost. If they did, it would be wonderful. It would be wonderful if they pick up our garbage, too," she said.

Hale motioned to re-submit a resolution requiring the county commission to hire and pay for an engineer to oversee the project. Davis supported it.

The motion passed with all in favor.