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GHS Breaking Ground Next Week

In the two years since town voters approved the construction of a new high school, the Guilford High School Building Committee (GHSBC) and Tai Soo Kim Architects (TSK) have been preparing plans to build a state-of-the-art school. Next week, those plans begin to become concrete with a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, June 6.

The ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. at the baseball fields at GHS (the rain date is June 14). Because there will be no parking available at the current school, shuttle buses will be provided from the Long Hill Park parking lot.

The first phases of construction will include relocating the gas line, which currently sits near the cafeteria and southern portion of the tennis parking lot in the back of the school, at the beginning of July.

By the end of July, there will be contractors all around the building installing a temporary roadway on the west side of the school; new parking areas in front of the school, east of the school, and behind the school; and fencing off the baseball and general purpose fields for the construction area for the new school, according to a post on the GHSBC Facebook page.

The rear of the school will be closed to vehicle traffic after July 1; the west side of the building will have limited access after July 15. According to GHSBC, the construction activities that start around and behind GHS will result in limited access to synthetic fields and the Maturo Field, as well as stopping the use of the baseball fields.

The tennis court parking area will be open throughout July and August. A limited area of new parking for the tennis court will be made to the east of the courts in September, when the existing parking area will be closed for the remainder of the building project.

Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman is thrilled for the kick off to the anticipated project.

"We anticipate construction to begin over the summer. When your students return in September, there will be a full-functioning construction site just behind this building and we're on track for occupancy when we open this new school in 2015," Freeman said.

Check the GHSBC facebook page, www.facebook.com/guilfordhigh for more updates on construction information.