News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County School Board set to begin major renovations to the old Park View facility in preparation for a new citywide Pre-K Center.
The School Board approved a $8.77 million performance-based contract with Energy Systems Group. Putnam County Director of Schools Corby King said the renovations will include reworking the electrical and plumbing system, adding restrooms to classrooms, and addressing doors to stay within state fire codes.
“It’s a pretty extensive renovation,” King said. “It will look like a new school. New paint on the walls when they are complete, new shelving, and new cabinetry will be included so we are pretty excited about the project. It will come with new furniture. For an old school, it will look like and feel like a new school.”
King said the contractor will be the one solely looking over the project and will be responsible for keeping the school board updated every month. King said the contract is performance-based and that this is the first time the school board has gone with a contract as such.
“We’ve had lots of good recommendations from systems who have used ESG and that is how we brought them into the system to begin with,” King said. “Some of our neighboring counties like Trousdale County, you go over to Anderson County and down to Lawrence County. there are several systems but those are the ones that I spoke to individually and some others said they just have a good reputation and had good success in using them.”
A pre-K center would bring together all Cookeville and Algood pre-K students, freeing up between one and three classrooms in each of the elementary schools across the system. School officials said earlier this could help deal with growth for a long period of time across the system.
King said the school board hoped to have approved the project earlier but the logistics of the project had to be worked out.
“Getting that back from them and the subs and bidding all the different aspects out, the HVAC units is taking a little more time than we hoped for on the front end,” King said. “But we wanted to make sure that we had this contract right before we started and that was more important than rushing this and then getting a product at the end that we are not pleased with.”
King said the target date to have the renovations completed is December 1st, 2025. King said he is not sure if the school system would try to start the Pre-K center in the spring of that school year or wait until the following school year. King said the system will further evaluate when the renovations are closer to being completed.
