Crews continue to repair damage at New Rochelle High School and Isaac E. Young Middle School caused by Hurricane Ida last September.
Some areas of the school continue to require additional repairs and refurbishment. The wrestling room has been completely renovated as a result of the hurricane, and all walls were painted with new antimicrobial paint. The library and pool are still undergoing repairs, and will be for the next several months.
“The library and pool are longer-term recovery issues. The pool will take the longest, but library reconstruction is still going on,” said Carl Thurnau, Director of Facilities for the school district. “Since the space had to be gutted as a result of the flood, it gave us the opportunity to meet with a library designer and we have some meetings going on with the librarians and the principal about how they want that space to operate.”
The library is expected to open for the next school year, and there is no deadline yet for when the pool will be complete. Director of Facilities Keith Watkins said crews had to build an addition specifically to store pool maintenance equipment in the future. Watkins said the equipment was previously stored in the building’s basement, but it has since been removed for safety reasons in the event of future flooding.
“The pool is definitely going to take longer than this September, but the library is on schedule for September 2022. The pool being much more intricate and having greater mechanical needs will push the completion date into the 2023-24 school year. I applaud everyone’s efforts to keep these projects moving forward,” Watkins said.
Work at Isaac E. Young Middle School is mostly finished, with the exception of some repairs that will be done over the summer. During the storm, a drain line that runs under the cafeteria floor failed. Over the summer, crews will excavate the floor and replace the pipe. Work is on target to be completed before students head back to school in the fall.