Tokay to get six new science classrooms

[Guest guest]

Tokay to get six new science classrooms

Lodi News-Sentinel - Lodi,CA*

By Dyer

News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 8, 2007 6:51 AM PDT

http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2007/08/08/news/8_mold_070808.txt

Amid laughter and mold-related jokes, Lodi Unified officials

revealed plans Tuesday night to add six new science classrooms to

Tokay High School's campus.

The six new 1,400-square-foot science classrooms are set to replace

the existing 900-squarefoot classrooms by July 25 of next year,

according to assistant superintendent of facility planning Art Hand.

The new classrooms, which reportedly cost approximately $3 million,

will be pre-fabricated classrooms that will be placed on the school

site as permanent fixtures, according Sandstrom, principal at

Tokay High.

Tokay High's six existing science classrooms were already scheduled

to be remodeled during the next three years. However, district staff

was having difficulty finding space to expand the existing science

wing.

" No matter what we would have done, they would always have been

undersized, " Hand said.

When construction workers found significant amounts of mold on Tokay

High's campus in late June during a scheduled modernization project,

the district put plans for remodeling the school's science wing on

the back burner to concentrate on mold cleanup.

Now, Tokay High's existing science wing, the wing most severely

damaged by mold, will be one of the last buildings to undergo mold

remediation.

According to Hand, the wing will be rebuilt into more generic

classrooms.

The district is expected to spend approximately $11.5 million during

the next year on mold clean up.

That total includes finishing work on Lawrence Elementary School,

where mold was found in September of last year.

District officials are expected to borrow $12 million to cover

construction costs while they wait for $9 million in state funding,

according to Hand.

District officials said they were uncertain how long it would take

to repay the loan, but said that those plans would most likely be

available by the end of the month.

After years of watching water leak through her classroom ceiling,

Heberle, a science teacher at Tokay High, applauded the

district for taking a proactive approach to repairing the campus.

Several board members also congratulated the district staff on a job

well done.

" In the next year, Tokay will be on par with any school in the

district, " said board member .

Contact reporter Dyer at amandad@....