Crews Rush To Complete Construction On Broken Arrow Schools

Workers are racing to finish some projects at Broken Arrow schools before they open their doors for the beginning of school. Several construction projects and renovations are still going on less than two weeks before students start pouring into classrooms.

With school less than two weeks away, crews are still pouring concrete at Broken Arrow High School.

Five years and nearly $300 million later, school buildings across Broken Arrow Public Schools are getting a new look. School officials said the bond issue built 300 new classrooms across the district.

"This is the first year in over 30 years that we will no longer have a single student in a prefab building and that's pretty exciting," said Broken Arrow Public Schools’ Chief Operating Officer, Michelle Bergwall.

Now it's a race to get some of the final projects wrapped up before the buses arrive and the first bell rings.

"From the day we let out of school, we had 11 weeks before school was back in, it's kind of a crazy thing, teachers want back in before the first day of school," Bergwall said.

Broken Arrow High School is getting some upgrades: sophomores will be taking classes on the main campus this year and administrators said high school students in good standing will be able to leave campus for lunch, and a new guard shack will help control traffic and secure the campus.

Bergwall, said construction crews have been working non-stop at many schools.

Students starting classes at Oak Crest Elementary are getting a new building; Bergwall said the Oak Crest campus is no longer spread out over five buildings.

"It's such a better situation to have all the kids under one roof where they don't have to walk outside. You don't have to leave doors unlocked during the day so teachers can move back and forth," said Bergwall.

Sequoyah Middle School's campus received security upgrades and traffic flow changes and the school district will open its fourth Early Childhood Center at the old site of Arrow Springs Elementary.

There is still one more project left at the Performing Arts Center with the bond issue money, then, leftover money will be used to fund roof and parking lot improvements.

School is in session on August 21st.