{"id":13962,"date":"2013-02-20T12:03:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T17:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=13962"},"modified":"2013-02-20T12:03:35","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T17:03:35","slug":"unionville-high-school-formally-rededicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=13962","title":{"rendered":"Unionville High School formally rededicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ceremony marks completion of $71 million expansion project<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"UHSRededication\"<\/a>

Unionville-Chadds Ford School District officials gathered Tuesday night to officially dedicate the renovations for Unionville High School. From left, Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Sanville, Board of Education member Jeff Leiser, Board member and Facilities Committee chair Frank Murphy and Board of Education President Eileen Bushelow cut the ribbon, officially marking the dedication.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\nEAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 As one chapter ended \u2014 three years of construction and some angst in the community \u2014 current and former administrators and board of education members from the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District gathered Tuesday night to usher in the newest chapter of Unionville High School: the completion of a $71 million renovation that updated the 54-year-old structure to all but new.<\/p>\n

Local elected officials, including East Marlborough Supervisor Robert Weer, Newlin supervisor chair Janie Baird, mingled with current and former Board of Education members, including Kathleen Brown, Timotha Trigg, Karen Haldsted and Corrine Sweeney \u2014 to formally dedicate the the massively revised building, now complete after some three years of construction.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night ended the formal end of construction of the school\u2019s renovation, a project that added new classrooms, a new gym, a new auditorium and reworks of much of the building, the first major work done at the school since a 1991 renovation and expansion of the building, which first opened in 1959.<\/p>\n

Although the mood was festive, there was a sense expressed by many that the end of the construction project might put years of divided opinion about the worth and scope of the project behind the district and the community at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a unanimous project when it started,\u201d said board member Frank Murphy, who has chaired the Facilities Committee for the board since 2009 and oversaw the project for the board. \u201cBut what started in disagreement, ended up in agreement on a great building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Sanville admitted he was a little hesitant to hold Tuesday\u2019s night ceremony because of the strong feelings \u2014 negative and positive \u2014 that the community expressed over the project, but suggested that the building was a \u201ctriumph of good intentions\u201d and noted how impressed he was that so many had turned out on \u201ca raw February night\u201d to celebrate the completion of the project.<\/p>\n

Students led tours of the renovated facilities, and spoke of the old building, with leaky roofs, cramped space in the cafeteria and the dreaded modular classrooms, which required going outside in the rain and cold.<\/p>\n

The students, all of whom had to endure the many disruptions caused by the construction, too, marveled at the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur reputation for academic excellence did not match our facilities,\u201d senior class president Bianca Gizzi said. \u201cNow, the quality of our physical structure equals our education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Superintendent Sharon Parker, under whom the project started, admitted it proved to be more challenging than anyone thought, and ultimately more educational for all involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all learned the value of mathematics, economics and measurement,\u201d Parker joked, the last a reference to the 2011 dispute with East Marlborough over the height of the auditorium. Parker thanked parents, students and the community at large for their sacrifices in making the project so successful.<\/p>\n

Unionville High School principal Paula Massanari \u2014 who has seen virtually her entire time at the school dominated by the construction project after coming to the school in Jan. 2009 \u2014 noted that beyond the vast improvement in the quality of the facility, the renovation makes the building safer and more secure for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had the 18 modular classrooms, it required us to keep the perimeter doors unlocked,\u201d she said. Now, she noted, only the main entrance to the building at the main office is open, making the building far more secure.<\/p>\n

Plaques were presented to Jim McLimans, the district\u2019s project manager, who oversaw the day-to-day on-site management of the project and Rick Hostetler, the district\u2019s Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds, who oversaw the entire project for the district. The project was completed early and under the original budget of $71 million, district officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ceremony marks completion of $71 million expansion project By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 As one chapter ended \u2014 three years of construction and some angst in the community \u2014 current and former administrators and board of education members from the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District gathered Tuesday night to usher in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[485,850,7427,1286],"class_list":["post-13962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-board-of-education","tag-renovation","tag-unionville-high-school","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}