By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
Plagued by rains and a virus outbreak that have delayed construction, Yukon’s new school won’t be ready for the start of the 2020-21 school year.
Redstone Intermediate School, at Mustang and Britton roads, will house about 635 Yukon Public Schools’ fourth, fifth and sixth graders when it opens.
But that opening won’t be on Aug. 20, when the new school year kicks off. Instead, YPS officials plan to move in over fall break.
“We had so much rain during this process,” YPS Superintendent Dr. Jason Simeroth said. “We were going to be really, really close. We were going to be tight.”
Besides the wet weather, one sub-contractor on the project had a COVID-19 exposure that forced the company to temporarily stop work.
“It wasn’t a full 14 days, but when you’re on a tight schedule, five-six days is a killer to try and make that up,” Simeroth said. “After they got back to work, some of the companies that were supplying (materials) didn’t have the people working there to continue the supply.”
The $25 million Redstone Intermediate will be the YPS’ 13th school site. The approximately 120,000 square foot school is funded through a $44.6 million bond issue approved by YPS voters in September 2017.
Redstone principal is Tracy Sowinski and assistant principal is Randy Stowe.
The contractor for the Redstone building project is Wynn Construction.
TEMPORARY SCHOOL SITE
Plans call for Redstone’s fourth, fifth and sixth graders to initially be housed at Yukon’s former sixth grade building at Garth Brooks Boulevard and Yukon Avenue.
This “mini-Redstone” should only be needed for a “very short time” until construction is complete on the new school site, according to Yukon’s school chief.
YPS officials hope to have everything transferred to the new Redstone Intermediate School over fall break in mid-October.
The delay won’t be all bad, as the City of Oklahoma City will improve the bumpy road in front of the school in the meantime.
“That’s the longest span of days that we don’t have students in the buildings from August 20 to that point,” Simeroth explained. “I know it’s disappointing, but I understand the city plans to resurface the road sometime in August, so this will help us avoid that process as well.”
The opening of Redstone Intermediate will bring changes for some YPS campuses beginning with the 2020-21 school year.
Yukon Middle School will have grades seven and eight, with sixth grade moving to Redstone
Intermediate, Lakeview Intermediate, and Independence Intermediate.
Lakeview and Independence were previously elementary schools; both sites started as middle schools.
