COMMERCIAL-NEWS | ROBERT TOMLINSON
Three Rivers Community Schools broke ground on two projects last week: A project for a new transportation building on Haines Road (left) and a new addition to Three Rivers Middle School (right).
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — Three Rivers Community Schools’ bond project reached another milestone on Wednesday, June 14, breaking ground on two new additions to the district.
School district officials celebrated the beginning of construction on a new transportation facility and a new addition to Three Rivers Middle School with two groundbreaking ceremonies. The projects are part of the second phase of the district’s bond project, passed back in 2019.
The new $6 million, 10,150-square foot transportation building will be built on a piece of land the district owns on Haines Road just north of Sixth Avenue. It’ll feature a building with offices for the transportation department and its drivers, three maintenance bays for buses, a gated camera area for buses, and a lit canopy to shelter the buses to give drivers a better environment to operate.
TRCS Transportation Director Kenni Jean Schrader said the project was something that had been spoken about multiple times by the district over the last 20 years, but hadn’t been acted on until this point.
“I think it’s going to be a great advantage for the surrounding area, the traffic at the high school and middle school that we experience,” Schrader said. “It’s going to be a much-improved facility for our bus drivers and staff, and we’re looking forward to moving in.”
TRCS Superintendent Nikki Nash said the move of the transportation department will be beneficial to the district.
“Getting our buses more flowing to the district so it’s not over by the high school and the middle school with the before- and after-school traffic will be big,” Nash said. “The other piece of it is just having that gated camera area so we can make sure our equipment is protected.”
Construction of the transportation department will also give more space for the athletic department to operate near Armstrong Field, Schrader said. The move of the transportation department from where it sits now on the corner of Collins Drive and Sixth Avenue will also reportedly give the athletic department expanded space for parking and equipment.
“It’s difficult with buses coming in, students moving around, parents and spectators coming to events, it’s going to make the flow of district activities go more smoothly,” Schrader said.
The transportation building is expected to be completed by spring of 2024.
As for the middle school, the $15.3 million, 10,000-square foot addition to the academic wing of the school is just one part of the biggest aspect of the bond project that includes renovation of the entire wing of the school. The new addition will be placed in the southwest side of the building, and will create more space for classrooms in the area.
Nash said these particular rooms will be used for sixth grade students, with the entire layout of the academic wing ultimately being changed to have areas for sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade students.
In addition to the new addition, the planned renovations as a whole include a new secure office area for the school, a new set of lockers on the north side of the academic office area, improved traffic flow for student drop-off, new HVAC and lighting, and a new “feeling” to the classrooms by adding windows to many classrooms to bring in natural light.
The middle school project will be done in phases, with the current addition expected to be done by March 2024. Several sections of the middle school will be worked on over the next year-plus, with the entire renovation expected to be completed by February 2025, and to be fully open to students by the start of the 2025-26 school year. Due to the project, eighth grade students at the middle school will be taking classes at Three Rivers High School for the next two years.
Middle School Principal Jason Bingaman said the new addition and the renovation as a whole will be a welcome sight to the school once all is said and done.
“It’s exciting not only for students and staff, but exciting for members of the community to finally get some updates to a building that’s really been in need of some TLC,” Bingaman said. “A lot of the parts of the building are original, so we’re excited to create a new educational atmosphere, and create an up-to-date learning environment for our students.”
Nash agreed.
“I was principal back in 2015, and coming from an elementary that had been renovated, to coming to the middle school that had the same carpet in its teachers’ lounge and in the classrooms that had been there for 20-plus years, if not original, the kids, the staff and community deserve a better learning environment,” Nash said. “This is far overdue from what we had been able to do in the past.”
Overall, Nash said both projects couldn’t have been done without the community passing the bond proposal a few years ago.
“I’d like to thank the community for what they have given to our kids. I think it’s a huge commitment, and it shows our community is supportive of Three Rivers Schools, and we can’t do it without our community,” Nash said.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@threeriversnews.com.