As students head off to a well-earned summer break, the school building will start an improvement process to fix old infrastructure and ADA violations around the school’s grounds.
Although the full renovation of the school was proposed to the County Council as part of the Capital Improvement Plans, it was ultimately not included and pushed back even further. This disappointed students and staff who had been advocating for necessary change to the building. “I am so disappointed to hear that the CIP has been pushed back after all of the advocacy work that we have done as a community to address the hazardous state of our building,” junior Madeline Eig said.
Although full renovations have been pushed back, a series of improvements are scheduled for this summer and the summer of 2025 meant to fix smaller issues at school. Phase 1 of the improvements is planned for this summer and includes bathroom renovations, auditorium improvements, and changes to exits by the baseball field, cafeteria and special education exterior doors. Despite the full schedule of changes for this summer, students should not expect any disturbances at the start of the school year. “As of right now, all work is scheduled to be completed mid-August so there will hopefully not be any disruptions at the beginning of the school year,” school business administrator Arlin De La Rosa said.
The stadium field will also be receiving an update, with new turf scheduled to be installed over the summer. The installation process will begin soon. “The turf project is slotted to begin next week after Memorial Day and be completed within two weeks. This project should not have any impact on fall sports or tryouts,” De La Rosa said.
Due to the number of projects that will be taking place, this summer students have expressed concern they won’t be able to use the school’s facilities as normal, but as for regulated school events, they will still take place. “The building will be closed during construction but Wootton staff, Wootton athletics, and marching band will have access to the building contingent to the building summer cleaning and construction schedule and needs,” De La Rosa said.
A second slate, or Phase 2, of improvements is scheduled for the summer of 2025. More extensive changes will be made during this phase, including improving the school’s ADA compliance. Bus loop reconfiguration, stadium access, tennis court access, and the main entrance are all projects that will be in the next phase.
The changes to the special education exterior doors are especially important, as they were a point of conflict this past school year. Due to their size and location in the school, during the bomb threat evacuations this year, it was dangerous for special education students, staff and other students who all had to evacuate through the same door.
To learn more about the scheduled changes for this summer and the next, click here to access the slides from the community meeting on Mar. 4.
