It’s going to be a busy summer at Deer Path Middle School, where officials say carpeting and asbestos will be removed and replaced with new tile in the east building.
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On Jan. 26, the District 67 Board of Education approved paying $266,000 to Husar Abatement to remove asbestos that was installed under the floors of Deer Path when it was built in 1954. The asbestos removal is a necessary part of a project to replace 16-year-old carpeting with new tiles, district officials said.
“The carpet was glued to the tiles,” said Carol White, director of building and grounds for Districts 67 and 115. “Pulling up the carpet would pull up the tiles and release asbestos.”
Husar Abatement will remove about 48,000 square feet of carpeting and asbestos over an estimated three-week period, said White.
White said the most challenging part of the project will be moving furniture and other items from classrooms to gyms and back again. Moving everything will require four days of working around the clock by the normal day staff, plus work done by the night staff and five college students hired for the summer, White said.
“Teachers have a lot of stuff,” White said. “Everything has to be marked and have right room numbers on it.”
Work will start as soon as students leave for summer vacation, officials said.
The school will be closed for the summer, with summer classes moved to Everett Elementary School.
The Board of Education will decide on a contractor to install new tile during its March meeting. Installing the new tile will take the remainder of the summer, White estimated.
“It will be right down to the wire,” White said.
The money for the project will come out of the district budget, said Allen Albus, deputy superintendent of finance and operations for Districts 67 and 115.
Officials said this will be the fourth and final year of asbestos abatement and carpeting replacement at District 67 schools, with similar projects already completed at the west Deer Path building, Everett, Sheridan and Cherokee schools.
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