HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – It’s been nearly five months since renovations began to Hastings Catholic Schools. Since then, the building has undergone quite a bit of renovation. School officials say, besides the trouble of receiving some of the construction materials on time, everything is running according to plan.
The link connecting the north and south wings has been completely demolished. Also in the south wing, old windows and asbestos have been removed along with walls, flooring and more— all to make way for expansion and upgrades.
In order to allow for proper construction, they’ve had to condense down into one side of the building.
“We’re a little bit scrunched so, we did take the library and split it in two so, we made a couple rooms out of that,” said Father Tom Brouillette, HCS chief administrative officer. “We’re using some other space that we’ve made it a little for our students to be able to use as extra classroom space.”
Although things may seem a little tight fitting for the time being, it’s a small price to pay in order to make way for the big improvements.
Brouillette said students seem to be a bit shocked seeing all of the changes to the school.
“Father rowan, our school principal, did walk the seniors through the south wing over the lunch hour a couple weeks ago when construction had stopped at that particular moment so, they were able to see all that was going on and what could be so, it was a little, you know, eye opening for them but, they realized it’s really a big project and that it’s really going to benefit them in the end.”
Funds for the project are being raised through the HCS campaign called, “Our faith. our future. Our time.”
So far, about 76% of their $12 million goal has been raised by receiving various donations and pledges.
If everything runs according to schedule, renovations are expected to be fully completed by the end of September 2023.
The project had been a long time coming, but Brouilette said there is a lot to be looking forward.
“When I first came in 2010, I wanted to get going on this project at that time but, it just wasn’t quite feasible to be thinking about that or doing that at the time so, we made due with the school that we had ,” Brouillette said. “Now, as we see it coming to fruition, it’s going to be like a brand new building.”
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