By Kelly Doran
Editor

Amelia Middle and High School is currently undergoing renovations to make the building ready to become West Clermont Middle School.

Work began around June 1, as soon as students finished school for the summer, said Lance Perry, director of operations. The maintenance staff will be working for the next three summers to prepare the school to open in the fall of 2017.

The staff is “trying to give the school a facelift to try to bring it up to a 21st century classroom the best we can,” Perry said.

For the building, that means that walls, doors, heating units, bookshelves and lockers will be painted, shelving units will be built or refurbished, white boards will be added or rearranged to be in more strategic locations in classrooms and the gym floor will be sanded and painted, Perry said.

Most of the work is being done in house, which saves money. However, the staff does not have the skills required to do all the projects, like the gym floor, the lockers, the heating units and any metal shelves, Perry said.

The lockers, heating units and metal shelves are going to be painted using a technique called electrostatic painting, which adheres better and lasts longer, Perry said.

Perry may bring in some outside help if he needs to speed up the process, or in any other situations where it would be more cost effective to have someone else do it.

This summer, the staff is working to get one section of the school done, a group of 30 rooms in the middle school part of the building. So far, the staff is on schedule and they have not run into any problems, Perry said.

“I think 30 rooms is a pretty aggressive number to tackle for this year,” Perry said.

His goal is to finish the rooms by August 1, which leaves him some extra time to fix any problems that arise before students return. Perry hopes that he will make his deadline so that the maintenance staff is out of the way before the teachers come back to prepare for the new school year.

Some parts of the building will not be completed until the summer before the school opens as West Clermont Middle School, out of respect for the high school students who will be graduating from Amelia High School, such as gym and other places with the Baron logo, Perry said.

Perry does not know a final cost for the renovations yet.