CASPER, Wyo. – The Natrona County School District Board of Directors voted on Monday in favor of a project to renovate the ‘black box’ theater space at Roosevelt High School into a vocational and technical classroom (CTE ).

The total cost of the renovation and conversion project will be $ 575,300 and funding for the project will come from priority funds of the Board of Directors.

The infrastructure planning committee explains in its recommendation that the new Roosevelt High School which was built in 2016 shares its campus with Pathways Innovation Center.

When Roosevelt’s new campus was built, a “black box” theater was built to serve the school’s fine and performing arts program. However, the fine and performing arts staff who were employed at Roosevelt when the campus was built have since left the neighborhood and Roosevelt has not built new articulating courses in the fine arts and the arts. a spectacle.

Articulated courses refer to a sequence of courses in the same content area. Such courses are required for high school graduation as well as for scholarship opportunities.

The plan to transform the “black box” theater into a CTE space was recommended because of a shift towards vocational and technical education in the types of courses offered by Roosevelt. The new CTE classroom would provide space for introductory carpentry classes.

Those courses tie into the Construction I and Construction II courses offered at Pathways, according to the committee.

The renovation project will include:

• Addition of a dust collection system
• Addition of a dedicated exhaust and adjustment of existing ducts
• Adding plumbing for a store sink and emergency eyewash station
• Adjusting the fire sprinkler system to increase density
• Addition of an additional electrical panel
• Addition of luminaires and rearrangement of lighting
• Addition of data / telecom ports
• Installation of CTE equipment

No structural changes will be necessary. Project costs will include:

• Dust collector: $ 340,000
• Exhaust fan: $ 5,000
• Conduits: $ 5,000
• Controls: $ 10,000
• Balancing: $ 2,500
• Eye wash: $ 5,000
• Insulation: $ 1,500
• Air compressor: $ 7,500
• Fire protection: $ 3,800
• Owners overhead costs: $ 20,000
• Furniture, fixtures and equipment: $ 25,000
• Design and contingency: $ 100,000
• Preparation of the hall – relocation of the stands: $ 50,000

The project will be designed between September and November 2021. The first phase of construction should begin between November 2021 and March 2022. This first phase will include the installation of a dust collection system and the modification of the electrical and mechanical systems.

The second phase of construction is scheduled to begin between April and May 2022 and will include the installation of educational materials.

Stories related to Oil City News: