RENOVATION LEADS TO INNOVATION
ERECKSON MIDDLE SCHOOL CREATIVELY ENCOMPASSES SCHOOL RENOVATION WITH NO DISRUPTION TO LEARNING BY ERIN McCANN, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA AND MARKETING
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ome amount of noise is expected when you visit a school building during the day. The buzz of conversation from the cafeteria or the sound of collaboration in a library space would be average ambient noise on an Allen ISD campus. What you may not expect to hear is the sound of power tools in the distance while innovation and learning take place. Ereckson Middle School is in phase three of a four-phase, 12-month renovation. This campus upgrade was approved by voters in Proposition A of the 2020 Bond Election. Ereckson is one of four campus renovations, as well as the upgrade and renovation of three wings at Allen High School.
was too extensive to occur over the three months that students are home for the summer. Instead, Allen ISD came up with a creative plan to renovate different sections of Ereckson to minimally impact the school day while allowing the students and staff to benefit from the new design as quickly as possible. Project planning meetings began with Leslie Norris, the campus principal, members of Allen ISD administration and Balfour Beatty Construction during the 2021-2022 school year to ensure that the phases of renovation would facilitate success.
Previous campus renovations, including the upgrade of Boon Elementary in 2021, took place over the summer months so that changes to the campus did not impact learning. This timeframe would have been impossible with the scope of the project at Ereckson.
“The Ereckson students, staff, and families have been incredible,” said Daniel Pitcock, Deputy Superintendent of Allen ISD. “They’ve been incredibly flexible as we work to replace end-of-life finishes in our building and change our learning environments to meet the current needs of students and teachers.”
Ereckson Middle School is 279,000 square feet and houses over 1,200 students. The full scope of the campus renovation
One of the ways that Ereckson has made the renovation work so seamlessly is the process of relocating entire
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