Boyle community can help choose brick color for new middle school

Published 6:11 pm Friday, August 17, 2018

The Boyle County community is being asked to help choose what the new Boyle County Middle School building will look like.

Specifically, the school district wants to know what colors of bricks should be used. The school board can choose from two different options for the main bricks — “Nappa Valley” or “Cambridge” — and three different color options for the decorative soldier courses that create a stripe along the outside of the building, creating six possible combinations.

Ben Kleppinger/ben.kleppinger@amnews.com
Tony Thomas, lead architect on the Boyle County Middle School construction project, presents brick-color options to the Boyle County Board of Education Thursday night.

There’s a fairly tight timeframe for deciding. Tony Thomas, lead architect on the middle school project, said he would like to get an answer back this coming week.

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“By the end of August, I’m hoping we have told the contractor what the brick is,” Thomas said Thursday during his architect’s report to the Boyle County Board of Education. “I’m hoping that maybe we let people look at it for a week.”

A sample wall of the different brick combinations is up now at the construction site, and Thomas passed out photos of the wall to board members Thursday. Superintendent Mike LaFavers said district staff will be asked to give their input and the community will be invited to voice opinions as well.

An online survey is available now for community members, said Jennifer Broadwater, communications director for the district. The one-question survey can be taken at bit.ly/BCMSbrickpoll.

The main brick options are Nappa Valley, which contains a variety of darker red bricks; and Cambridge, which has a more pastel palette of colors. The soldier course options are “brown velour,” “burgundy” or “white plains.”

Construction progress

Thomas said there has been a lot of rain and bad weather that has created “stumbling blocks for our contractors.” Photos he showed to board Thursday and at last month’s regular meeting show how water has continued to present a problem.

“You can see how everything has just been so wet,” he said.

Boyle County Board of Education
A rendering shows what the new Boyle County Middle School is expected to look like once construction is complete.

But the weather doesn’t explain all of the delayed progress, Thomas said.

“We feel like the project could be further along than it is right now, and I think that’s going to be a discussion with our contractors at the next meeting,” he said. “I feel like it probably could have moved faster than it is. The big key for us I think, is right before we go into winter, where are we? … If there’s nothing under roof, it’s going to be hard for them to do any interior work, they’re going to be in a situation again where weather is going to be a deterrence for them.

“So we really want to try to have them get as much work done as they can before winter.”

Thomas said by the time Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around, the district should be able to get a clearer picture of “is August really a possibility?”

Construction on the more-than-$30 million school began in January, with the goal of opening the new Boyle County Middle School for the 2019-20 school year.

The current Boyle County Middle School will be renovated to serve as Woodlawn Elementary School; and the current Woodlawn Elementary School will then be outfitted to serve as the school district’s alternative school and central office.

The new school will include a gymnasium that can seat 900 and an auditorium that can seat 500, with an orchestra pit and fly loft for large productions.

Clotfelter/Samokar, an architectural firm, has been hired to design the project and Branscum-W. Rogers has been hired as the construction company on the project.

 

VOTE ONLINE

The Boyle County community has been invited to participate in an online survey to gauge opinions on different colors of bricks for the new Boyle County Middle School. The one-question survey can be taken at bit.ly/BCMSbrickpoll.