School science labs transported into 21st Century

It took $2.2 million and 13 months, but Burke County Public Schools has transformed its 1970s-era high school science facilities into 21st-century laboratory-classrooms.
Students and teachers at Freedom High School in Morganton and East Burke High School in Connelly Springs now work and learn in larger, brighter, safer, better-equipped and digitally networked facilities — all within the walls of schools built for different needs in a different age.
Freedom opened in 1973 and East Burke in 1974. Back then the theory of plate tectonics was not much more that a hotly contested hypothesis in earth science, the last man to walk on the moon had been home for a year and a hand-held, cigarette-package-sized "communicator" was the stuff of science-fiction fantasy.
Indeed, Marty Beal of CBSA Architects in Hickory, who designed the project, said he felt like he was in "Star Trek" the first time he entered the circular north node that houses the library and science classrooms in Freedom High's kidney-shaped main building.
Beal said designing the laboratory-classrooms was a challenge for several reasons, not least of which was the 1970s-era architecture inspired by a brief vogue in constructing "open" classrooms. Both working areas were on the second floor above the schools' libraries. He also had to make sure the new facilities complied with modern safety standards — OSHA also was created in the 1970s – and educators' expectations both locally and at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Assistant Superintendent Tony Cox said the project got off to a strong start and ultimately exceeded expectations because there was a productive collaboration involving teachers, the architect, outside contractors and the schools' own shop staff.
It helped, too, that Beal came to the project fresh from designing new science classrooms in Catawba County. Science classrooms have some unique needs, such as solid lab benches, running water and natural-gas hookups for experiments, eye-wash safety stations and emergency power cutoffs, ventilation to exhaust the occasional chemical fumes and strong, glare-free lighting for examining specimens.
At Freedom and East Burke, the contractors also had to remove asbestos above the ceilings, conceal ductwork and wiring, build walls and shelves, rebuild ceilings, replace carpets with tile and do it all constrained by space and time. Students couldn't occupy the rooms while construction was under way, so at Freedom High they moved special-education classes to new facilities in the former business section and temporarily relocated science classes to an outside pod on the school's west side.
Students moved back into their new science classrooms last month. The public got a look at the facilities during simultaneous open houses on Feb. 4.
Originally there were five science classrooms at each school, each with about 800 square feet. The redesign reduced the number to four with more than 1,000 square feet, new staff prep rooms and a "virtual experimentation" lab set up for 18 computer workstations.
"Because most of the new utilities, data and telecommunication lines for the laboratories were routed under the second floor, the project scope was extended to include each school's media center on the first floor," Cox said. "Renovations there included a new lay-in grid ceiling, new energy-efficient lighting, new floor and wall finishes and even some furniture updates."
With construction bids lower than expected, and by using the schools' shop staff for some jobs, the team created four additional science classrooms at each school, provided a new power feeder line at East Burke High, modernized fire-protection monitoring and control systems at each school and bought laboratory equipment and labware for both.
"This was actually a large, complex effort," the school district's construction manager, Mike Stroup, said in a press release. "In addition to the main contract, there were five other supporting contracts and six separate job orders for our Facilities Department forces to complete. These jobs ranged from asbestos abatement in the old lab area and technology wiring to new sinks and power for the eight science rooms and painting the media centers."
The prime contractor was David E. Looper Co.
Cox said the work went very smoothly. Although some "punch-list" items still await completion, he said the number of change orders during construction was well below average for in-place renovation.
"Everything was completed on time and within budget, extending the life of these schools while saving the taxpayers thousands of dollars," Cox said.
He and Beal said the new facilities will continue to save money in the future. Beal said the final result doesn't quite qualify for the building industry's official "green" status, "but it's close."
The remodeled facilities are much more energy efficient, he and Cox said. For example, the lighting fixtures provide far better illumination, but consume less power.