The Putnam County Early Learning Center at the old Park View School will get new flooring as part of the building renovation project.
Deputy Director of Schools Tim Martin said new tile will be installed in the front hallway, south side hallway, and some classrooms. Martin said the new tile was not planned originally, but changes to the project warranted a change.
“We’re going to be moving some walls around in some areas because we’re creating bathrooms in all of those classrooms for the Pre-K kids,” Martin said. “And that was going to cause us to have to patch a lot of flooring area anyway.”
Martin said the original floors found to be in worse shape than expected during the demolition phase. That paired with the amount of patching that would need to be done contributed to the need for new floors.
Martin said the original facility was built in stages. He said the floors in the back of the building are newer and in better shape. In addition, those classrooms already have bathrooms.
Martin said the classrooms without bathrooms are being completely restructured.
“If you go over there right now and could walk in there right now, you would find out that a lot of the walls between classrooms have been taken down,” Martin said. “We’ll be building some bathroom areas in those classrooms, then restructuring the walls between those rooms.”
Martin said the bathrooms will include a toilet and sink. They were originally part of the plan, but the floor work will increase the cost by some $162,000. Martin said the district originally intended to save the old flooring.
Martin said the bathrooms are being added because of requirements for Pre-K classrooms.
“We have a lot of strict guidelines,” Martin said. “We have to have so many teachers in the classroom at all times, of course kids can’t be left alone, that kind of thing. It’s very important for the Pre-Ks to have access to a bathroom.”
