District prepares to demolish intermediate school, remove asbestos

Thursday, May 19, 2016
Stephanie Olson, Amanda Tyler | WEAU

ALTOONA, Wis. (WEAU) -- It's out with the old and in with the new in Altoona as the School District gets ready to demolish its Intermediate School.

The demolition comes after voters approved a $23 million referendum in 2014 to build a new elementary school and revamp the old middle and elementary school.

Along with tearing down walls, crews will also start removing asbestos from the intermediate school building.

Starting Friday, Superintendent Connie Biedron says crews will begin removing asbestos from the floors in the building before the intermediate school is demolished. The demolition makes way for district offices and a safer bus pickup area.

According to the Wisconsin DNR, asbestos fibers are known to be cancer causing. The asbestos removal will take place following strict guidelines put in place by the u-s environmental protection agency and enforced by the DNR.

"Asbestos is not a danger to anyone unless it's touched, so there are all of these regulations to removing it. They will be removing that asbestos before they can remove the building," Biedron said.

Rhonda Langlais has students in 6th and 8th grade in the Altoona School District. Langlais says hearing about the asbestos in the intermediate school was a bit alarming at first.

"It was a little concerning, but it's moving forward and it will be taken care of and my kids won't be around it anymore," she said.

The district says its budgeted around $120,000 for asbestos removal in the intermediate school. Asbestos will also be removed from floors in the middle school and existing elementary school building.

It's just the beginning to a long summer of construction for the district.

"There are just a lot of positives that are happening. It's a lot of work now but in the end we will have a building the community can be proud of," Biedron said.

But parents like Langlais say it's worth it.

"It's just really great to see these changes happening and improving our school because it was in need of some repair so it's great,"

The final day of classes for students in grades K-5 will be Friday May 20th while kids in grades 6-12 will have their final day Wednesday May 25th.

As for the intermediate school building, after asbestos removal, demolition is scheduled to begin on May 31st.

Students, parents and alumni from an area school are remembering the past as they look forward to the future.

The Altoona School District held a school-wide block party Thursday as they celebrated the old middle school and the new renovations it will receive.

Students said goodbye to the old building as they painted bricks on the structure.

They also enjoyed games, a DJ and snow cones at the event.

Altoona Superintendent Connie Biedron says the students are excited to see what the new school will look like.

"We hope to have really a pretty new school when they come back: New flooring, new HVAC, paint, new lockers. So we're really trying to update not only a new elementary school, but our middle school too," said Biedron.

Biedron says that they will be tearing down a part of the middle school building on May 31. 

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