HHS work will start this week

Work will begin later this week on repairs of the lockers room and expansion of the gym facilities at Havre High School.

And work on the Sunnyside Intermediate School addition will begin early next week.

That’s the word from Havre School Superintendent Andy Carlson.

The locker rooms are out of date, in poor repair and wouldn’t meet federal Title IX rules, so district officials sought and received voter approval for repairs.

Included in that package was an addition to house weight rooms and wrestling practice areas that will enable the district to close its wrestling facility at 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue in downtown Havre.

Construction may not be visible in the first few days of high school construction, he said.

The district is on a rigorous timetable, he said. Locker rooms will be ready for the start of the 2014-15 school year, Aug. 27, Carlson said.

The wrestling and workout areas will be ready by mid-October, he projected. By November, he said, the district will be ready to move out of the downtown wrestling facility.

The school board will decide how best to go about selling that building, he said. Money from the sale will be used to offset the $5 million cost of the new construction at the high school and Sunnyside, he said.

The gym will be open through most of the construction, he said, but access will be limited.

The locker rooms will be closed off for the entire summer, he said.

The Sunnyside construction is more complex, he said. It will take considerably longer, he said.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the proposal in September.

About $2 million of the $5 million cost will come from a Montana Quality School Project Grant the district was able to obtain.