Work continues at new McAlester middle school
Dec. 21—Work continues on the $35-million middle school and event center being built at McAlester Public Schools.
School board members recently received an update on the site — projected to be complete May 31, 2023 — with representatives from Crossland Construction, the project manager, saying crews started electrical and plumbing work, plus brick work on the exterior.
"We're going to do more site work soon, I know it looks pretty messy right now but we're going to clean that up," Crossland representative Ronald Smith said.
"Pretty much everyday it looks amazing," board member Greg Rock said.
"It does and that brick is going up fast," Tribbey said.
"Well not as fast as we want it but we're working on it," Smith said with a laugh.
Nearly 80% of MPS district voters approved in February 2021 a $34.9 million bond toward construction of a middle school and event center. The bond extended two previous measures that brought an 8% tax increase in 2019, but did not increase taxes.
Plans for the facility include several classrooms and a new event center that doubles as a storm shelter for nearly 800 students in grades 7-12.
Work started in November 2021 on the multi-level facility being constructed on the hill between McAlester High School and East Van Buren Avenue.
Construction is projected for completion May 31, 2023.
Board members voted this month to call the new site Randy Hughes Middle School.
Hughes was the MPS superintendent with the vision for the new middle school before he retired last year.
He started as the MPS superintendent July 1, 2016, but previously served the district for more than two decades. Hughes started as a teacher at McAlester in 1985 and coached baseball, winning state championships in 1988, 1996, 1998 and 2000.
Hughes also served as principal of the alternative educator program, middle school and high school during his tenure in McAlester.
He left McAlester to accept the job at Middleberg in 2012 after his wife Nancy Hughes, a former business manager at MPS, started a job in the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
He inherited a troubled financial situation upon his return to McAlester as superintendent in 2016 — with school officials saying at the time that state aid cuts, increased nonessential spending, a nonexistent budget and more contributed to a financial crisis.
The new middle school also opened the district to consolidating buildings and renaming a few more.
Board members voted in December to change the name of Puterbaugh Middle School to Puterbaugh Upper Elementary because the site will soon only serve third and fourth grades and no longer house a middle school.
Emerson Elementary School was also renamed to Karla Brock Early Childhood Center. Brock taught at McAlester schools for more than 20 years and served as an assistant principal at Will Rogers Elementary before becoming principal at Washington Early Childhood Center.
She retired in 2012 while principal at Jefferson Early Childhood Center and officials said she impacted thousands of students during her career.
Crossland representatives previously said steel work would wrap up in November and workers started installing windows in classrooms.
Interior framing was basically complete in November and crews were mostly through with sheetrock.
Insulation crews were to start after Thanksgiving to add texture and foam before adding brick veneer under more precise weather conditions.
Contractors were to meet with the painter and start after the Thanksgiving break adding primer to everything before beginning to paint.
District officials publicly discussed over the past few years how to consolidate buildings after completion of the new facility — moving kindergarten through second grade to the Will Rogers building, and moving third and fourth grades to Puterbaugh site.
McAlester-based nonprofit Shared Blessings showed interest in purchasing a school facility.
Plans call to leave Eugene Field as the facility for alternative education and the nutrition department.
Officials have said Edmond Doyle Elementary, Jefferson Early Childhood Center and William Gay Early Childhood Center could be repurposed.
