Ringgold Middle School opening delayed until 2018
This January photo shows a construction crew working on what will be the gym at the new Ringgold Middle School.
Ringgold Middle School
Ringgold officials won’t open the district’s new middle school until early 2018 because of a delay in completing the $34 million building in Carroll Township.
Superintendent Karen Polkabla said in a letter to parents dated Friday district sixth- through eighth-graders will continue attending the existing middle school in Finleyville until they return from winter break in January. Fifth-graders will remain at the elementary schools until the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.
“The schedule to complete the new middle school was aggressive, and we are disappointed that it will not be opening at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year,” Polkabla said in the letter. “However, we believe that it is best to allow the extra time to complete the facility. Attempts to push construction so that the school could open at the beginning of the school year would result in reduced quality of construction.”
Project manager Nancy Gorgas of Massaro Construction Management Services in Pittsburgh didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. An employee who answered the phone Tuesday referred questions to the company’s marketing director, who wasn’t available.
The existing middle school is built on soil that contains the mineral pyrite, which shifts and swells as it gets wet, reportedly causing the 50-year-old building to shift and crack. Construction on the new, 141,962-square-foot middle school began in April 2016. Earlier this year, officials gave Aug. 4 as the completion date. As of the last construction meeting on May 24, Polkabla said it was projected to wrap up in mid-September.
She said the project is still within budget.
Her letter said the 2017-18 district calendar approved by the Ringgold school board earlier this month includes an extended winter break starting in December to give district workers time to “move the necessary furniture and property to the new location” at 2 Ram Drive, where sixth- to eighth-graders will attend classes when they return from break in January. She said officials decided to wait until the following year to move fifth-graders there from the elementary schools because the “programmatic changes necessary to transition to a 5-8 middle school program would be too disruptive to implement mid-year.”
She stressed the calendar for next year is tentative and may change further depending on circumstances.
The district has about 2,900 students, roughly 1,000 of whom are in fifth through eighth grades.