Students, Parents Get Sneak Peek at Keysor's Future

As Special Projects Manager for the Kirkwood Tricia Horton laid out plans for additions to , Bismah and Faizan Syed stood in amazement at a large mound of dirt in the distance.

“That would be a good place to go sledding,” Faizan joked to Bismah, a Keysor fourth-grader who agreed.

The dirt was dug from the north side of campus, where a big hold had been filled with concrete during an early phase of construction funded by .

Monday marked the annual “Meet your teacher night” at Keysor and, as a bonus, students were given a free tour of the construction site.

“For most kids ages 5 to 12 years old, construction is a pretty neat thing particularly as walls start going up,” Keysor Principal Bryan Painter said. “So far it has been demolition and digging. When they actually start seeing a building form, that is going to be cool for all of us.”

Seeing construction up-close sparked curiosity in parents like Jim Myers who gazed at re-bars protruding from the sheet of concrete on the north campus.

“So far, it doesn’t look like much now, but you can get an idea of how big it will be,” Myers said. “Also with the drawings they have, you get an idea of what it will look like, and it looks like what they have been saying all along which is good.”

Of the approximately $30 million issued from Proposition 1, $8.5 million is being allocated toward Keysor extensions and additions. The project will focus on building more classrooms, so that Kirkwood kindergarteners will be able to attend their home school. Currently, students have to attend kindergarten at schools such as , where there is more room, before starting first grade at Keysor.

Another aim of the project is to increase safety and security. Soon all Keysor visitors will have to go through a main entrance that takes them by the main office. This will allow administrators to always know who is on campus and when, Painter said.

Project plans outline a 42-foot high building on the north side of campus that will house 10 classrooms, an elevator and stairwells on both sides of the building, eight bathrooms and a gymnasium. The plans also call for turning the current gymnasium into a library with an elevated reading area and media resource center.

Dan Matthews, project superintendent for ICS Construction Services, the company leading Keysor construction, expects the classrooms and gymnasium to be completed in June 2012 with a projected completion date for the library set for around December of next year.

As Stephanie Burba gathered her daughter, Rowan, and prepared to leave the work site, she noted that the tour was informative but the scope of the project, especially in regards to the placement of the new gymnasium, was slightly larger than she had anticipated.

“I didn’t realize the gym was going to come out that far in the back of the building,” Burba said. “I think now it is a lot of preliminary work so it is not quite as far along as I thought it would be, but it sounds like it will be going along quickly.”

All Keysor students will be given a tour and offered structured access to construction areas Wednesday during their first day back to school, according to the Kirkwood School District.