Building a future
Some facilities get a face lift

Construction gear and crew are working on building the new JFK mid-school in Gallup. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

Alan Griego moves a large beam of steel Thursday afternoon at the site of the new JFK mid-school in Gallup. Griego and other workers of Five G's Steel Erectors Inc. will be in Gallup for the next six weeks doing the necessary steel work on the new building. A single steel beam can weigh well over a ton. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

GALLUP — The county school board will be spending more than $10 million in the next two years to improve schools and build new facilities within the city of Gallup.

This is evident by work now being done on Boardman Avenue and behind Gallup High School on three projects that will be finished by next summer. And following that, the district plans to give Gallup Middle School its own face lift.

Probably the most visible construction project at this point is occurring at JFK Middle School, which director of school construction David Irving said was part of plans to renovate the two middle schools for when the district goes ahead with its plans to eliminate the junior high and have all of the seventh- and eighth-grade pupils go to middle school.

The pupils have been shifted into portable classrooms during the construction at JFK, and Irving said the same thing will happen next year when Gallup Mid has its renovation.

The newest middle school — which will be named after Chief Manuelito — is now under construction behind Gallup High, and once all of these mid-schools are completed, each will house about 600 pupils.

Both JFK and Chief Manuelito are expected to be completed and ready for use by next August.

The other major construction project — the Student Support Center — is expected to be ready for use in the next four to six months.

This will become the major administration building for the district with departments in the district’s Central Office moving over there. The center will also have a bigger board room where school board meetings will be held.

While the other three projects are being built with the assistance of state capital funds — which will pay for 85 percent of the cost — the district is having to put up 100 percent of the $4.5 million to $5 million that the support center will cost since it will not directly benefit students, said John Samford, the district’s chief financial officer.

The support center will be located on Boardman next to the aquatic center.