A few school
district updates

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Several Capital Improvement Projects taking place in schools throughout the Northeast continue to make progress, according to officials.
School district spokeswoman Felecia Ward supplied the Times with an update on four schools that have announced renovation or conversion projects within the last three years.
Solis-Cohen School, at Horrocks Street and Tyson Avenue, is still awaiting approval from the Philadelphia Water Department and clearances from remaining city agencies on its addition. The new building will house kindergarten and first-graders and was originally set to open in time for the 2008-09 school year.
School officials said in February that they sought an alternative to giving up recreational field space for a dry basin in which to hold storm water, which is needed under new PWD regulations adopted in 2006. Architects planned to design a new way to hold storm water that could save the space.
At the former site of Benjamin Rush Middle School in Millbrook, work began in October to convert the building into a Creative Arts and Performing High School.
The project includes major renovation of classrooms, offices, mechanical and electrical rooms and the auditorium, cafeteria and gymnasium. About 30 percent of the general construction, 26 percent of the mechanical and 27 percent of the electrical work is complete. The completion date for the project is August 27, 2008.
Edwin Forrest School in Mayfair began construction of their Primary Education Center (PEC) in March. Foundation work is complete, floor slab was poured and steel erection began in June. Construction has progressed without incident and should be completed on or around February 1, 2008.
Despite construction delays and a union strike in June, the building of a new Abraham Lincoln High School at the current site at Ryan and Rowland avenues in Mayfair is almost half-way complete. It should open in mid-November of 2009.
A two-story, 268,324-square-foot building will be erected on the 80-acre site. It will include 66 teaching classrooms, a freshman academy and programs for health professions, business technology, computer technology, horticulture and recourse management and natural resource management. All playing fields will be replaced.
For information on the school district’s capital improvement projects, call the Philadelphia School Improvement Team hot line at 215-400-8815 or visit www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/psit/ ••