Construction crews spent the summer racing against the calendar to get Phillips Preparatory School in Mobile ready for the first day of classes, even as major renovation work continued right up to the opening bell.
Since early June, the Old Shell Road campus had been overtaken by heavy equipment, piles of dirt and lumber, and more than 100 construction workers as part of a $10 million renovation project. School leaders acknowledged the scene looked chaotic, but insisted the disruption would not derail learning for the roughly 850 students enrolled at the magnet school.
The principal’s office itself had to relocate temporarily into the school library while the new administration building took shape at the front of the campus. Nearby, workers were also building a dedicated band room, a space the school had never had before. Last year, eighth-graders were shifted into portable classrooms while their regular hallway was closed for renovation; once that hallway reopens later this year, sixth- and seventh-graders will move into portables so their own hallway can be renovated next.
A Mobile County school system project manager overseeing the work said crews had been putting in 12-hour days, seven days a week, to keep the project on schedule despite a rainy summer. The renovation is part of a broader $100 million construction push across Mobile County schools, and by the time work wraps up, officials said, nearly every part of the aging campus, which first opened in the 1950s, will be new.
The project is being completed in two phases. The current phase, nearing completion, covers the administration building, band room and cafeteria area, which is being expanded and will finally include air conditioning and an outdoor freezer for food service. A second phase will tackle the gymnasium, locker rooms, the band room’s final buildout and the sixth- and seventh-grade hallway. Full completion is expected by spring 2016.
To keep students safe amid the active work zone, school officials installed temporary fencing and modified building entrances and exits ahead of the first day. Buses and cars were set to follow familiar traffic patterns, with students entering near the library and being directed away from construction areas to their classrooms.
School leaders said they had spent much of the summer communicating with parents to ease concerns about the ongoing work, describing a clear plan to route students safely around active construction zones throughout the year.
For a campus that waited roughly a decade for a full renovation, the upgrades, including new technology infrastructure, wireless access, additional storage and a new roof, mark a significant investment in the school’s future, even as students and staff adjust to a year of continued construction noise and shifting classroom locations.