Carson schools a work in progress

Students and teachers returned Monday to find construction still under way at most schools.

“I can’t wait for this to be done,” said Ruthlee Caloiaro, principal of Mark Twain Elementary School. “It’s going to help with safety. It’s going to help with just the regular flow of school.”

Keith Shaffer, bond projects director for the Carson City School District, has some good news for her and for Fremont Elementary and Carson High Schools.

The remodel at each of the schools’ front offices, which will feature a single point of entry where visitors must check in before being buzzed into the main corridor of the school, will be complete by the end of the month.

Temporary offices have been set up at each of the sites during construction.

The weather has caused some delays, Shaffer said.

“This hasn’t been an incredibly difficult winter, but we did get some really cold temperatures early on,” he said.

As much of the work takes place after-school hours, Shaffer said, crews are hindered as the temperatures drop and the nights arrive earlier.

“It’s going to be more economical to work in the spring rather than in the middle of winter,” he said. “We have elected to change the schedule to get as much as we can out of the budget.”

Office renovations are complete at Fritsch Elementary School. Still on the agenda there and at other schools with multiple buildings on the campuses — including Pioneer and Carson high schools — is fencing around the exterior to create one point of entry.

The entryways are being constructed as part of a rollover bond passed by voters in 2010. As schools have been remodeled through previous bond issues, controlled-entry systems in which all exterior doors are locked from the outside typically have been installed as a safety measure. Only one door remains open, leading to a locked vestibule where visitors must check in with the front office. Once visitors are approved, office staffers buzz them through the second door, giving them access to the school.

Similar controlled-entry systems are planned at all remaining schools: Carson and Pioneer high schools and Bordewich-Bray, Fritsch, Mark Twain and Fremont elementary schools.

Other bond projects are planned throughout the district, including a new kindergarten playground at Mark Twain and new career and technical education classrooms at Carson High School.

At Bordewich-Bray Elementary School, the front office will be moved into what has typically served as the library. The main entrance to the school will shift from the south side to the north, off King Street.

The cost for the security improvements is estimated at $3.15 million of the $5.65 million left over from the $25 million first phase of the bond, the bulk of which went to the remodeling Eagle Valley Middle and Empire Elementary schools.