A school of their own

Sulphur High School 9th Grade Campus follows national trend

By Sam Barnes

After years of planning and design, an $11 million 9th Grade Campus will open next to Sulphur High School this summer. Calcasieu Parish School Board members hope the 750-student, two-building school will create an environment more conducive to learning.

School Board member Joe Andrepont said the board hopes to raise educational standards by isolating the 9th graders from older high school students.

"Drop-out rates at other 9th grade campuses have declined from 9 percent to 1 percent," Andrepont said. "Separating them from the upperclassmen should lead to an improved educational experience."

The Sulphur area has been supportive of the project, overwhelmingly passing a $14.5 million property tax package in October 2001.

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"We're a close community here and education is very important to us," Andrepont added. "We have three elementary schools and they all feed Sulphur High School, so it's not difficult to get support when we all have a stake."

Alfred Palma Inc. of Lake Charles plans to complete the school in time for the next school year. The contractor is building a two-story classroom and administration building, as well as a single-story building with gymnasiums, locker rooms, band/choral room and cafeteria.

Project manager Brad Evans said two months of rain delays plagued the jobsite after breaking ground in December 2002.

"But school officials were looking forward to having this school open by fall 2004," he added. "We had already finished five projects at Sulphur High School over the last 10 years and we had developed a relationship with the people here, so we told them we would do everything we could to finish the job on time."

School board members and architects Ray Fugatt and Randall Broussard meet weekly with the contractor to keep abreast of the school's progress.

To accomplish the stringent deadline, Alfred Palma supervisors modified the schedule to focus more on the classroom building and less on the gymnasium.

"The classroom building had to be finished for school to open; the gymnasium could wait a couple of months," Evans said.

No matter what schedule was followed, the contractor still had to get the building out of the ground during the winter months, which involved "fairly extensive site work consisting of 7,700 cu. yds. of excavation and the hauling of about 10,600 cu. yds. of new fill to raise the building pad."

No demolition was required because the site had been used previously as a practice field for sports and band.

"The site was actually a rodeo arena about 20 years ago," Evans added.

More than 300 drilled shafts were built as foundation by Foundation Drilled Shafts of Sulphur, ranging from 18 to 36 in. diameter and 8 to 30 ft. in depth.

The larger shafts were necessary beneath several large columns that support the gymnasium's steel trusses.

"Six of the gym trusses reach 119 ft. and were lifted in one piece," Evans said. Four of the trusses were needed to support the main gymnasium roof, while the remaining two were used for a smaller, adjacent gym. Each truss weighs about 12,000 lbs.

All of the trusses were fabricated by Jerry's Machine and Fabrication of Lake Charles and erected with a hydraulic crane by Alfred Palma last fall. Robbins Contracting of Moss Bluff erected some light-gauge roof trusses.

A 5-in.-thick slab was placed throughout both buildings with 3,000 psi concrete supplied by Dunham Price of Lake Charles and pumped by Star Concrete Pumpers, both of Lake Charles. A 4-in.-thick second floor slab was placed for the two-story classroom/administration building.

Exterior paving required an additional 700 cu. yds. of 4,000 psi concrete, with a total of 3,700 cu. yds. of concrete required for the entire project.

A significant amount of steel provides the framework for both buildings, requiring about 330 tons of structural steel and about 70 tons of bar joists.

"One of the more unique aspects of the buildings is the use of 'Ziprip' roofing," Evans said. The roof system is being "roll formed" onsite because the specified roof panels were too large to ship from the factory in New Jersey, often reaching 125 ft. in length.

"Designers wanted to reduce the number of splices and subsequently reduce the likelihood of roof leaks," he added.

A roll-former was transported from New Jersey to Louisiana so all panels that exceeded 60 ft. could be rolled on site. Upon completion, the new blue-tinted roof will consist of 99,000 sq. ft. of panels.

Other work at the site requires the placement of concrete-filled block for the interior gymnasium walls, acoustical roof decking over the gymnasiums and drywall for the interior classroom building walls. The contractor is installing a stucco, brick and glass exterior for both buildings.

The main entrance to the building will have an atrium that extends upward through the second floor, with windows installed at the top to allow natural light to filter into the space.

"Inside the lobby, there's going to an 8-ft.-wide by 10-ft.-tall brick sculpture that will feature the school crest," said architect Fugatt. A sculptor, Paula Collins in Texas, is working through Acme Brick Co. to design and create the bricks for the sculpture. She'll supervise the installation in March or April."

Fugatt said a courtyard space is being constructed between the two buildings, including a paved plaza with landscaping and ornamental iron fencing.

Another aesthetic feature is a popup steel canopy that will allow natural lighting to filter into a covered area connecting the two buildings.

Once opened this summer, students at the 9th Grade Campus will use some of the existing high school facilities, including an agriculture department building, auditorium and athletic complex.

Evans said school construction provides a unique set of requirements unlike other building projects.

"You have a given budget and a given program of needs to address in that building," he added. "In addition to that you want to make a nice space for the children to learn."

Useful Resources

For updates on the progress of the new campus, go to: http://www.cpsb.org/