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Ringgold to close middle school in Finleyville

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NEW EAGLE – Ringgold School Board took official action Wednesday to close the district’s middle school in Finleyville with the opening of a new building on the high school campus in Carroll Township.

The motion to close Ringgold Middle School didn’t include a date for the opening of the new building because its construction is behind schedule.

“We’re looking at moving over Christmas break. That’s our plan,” district Superintendent Karen Polkabla said at a board meeting in Ringgold’s administration building in New Eagle.

The district decided in May to delay the fall opening of the $42 million school for students in fifth through eighth grades. Fifth-graders will remain in the elementary schools until the start of the 2018-19 term. Students in grades six through eight will continue to attend classes at the Finleyville school until the new building is ready.

The district opted for an aggressive construction schedule from the beginning, said board President William C. Stein Jr. “It’s going to be such a nice school.”

Project manager Nancy Gorgas told the board Wednesday there were delays in getting the building enclosed on time.

The rainy summer also has slowed the curing of the concrete in the building, board Vice President Carol F. Flament said.

The district held a public hearing in March on the closing of the Finleyville school, which has experience structural damages for decades because it was built in the 1960s on pyritic soil that expands when met with moisture.

The decision to close the building was a formality in the process of opening the new school along Route 136, Polkabla said.

Some of the new school’s classroom windows overlook a beautiful old-growth pine forest. Other windows will face an open courtyard where students will experiment with growing techniques.

Construction began in April on the 141,962-square-foot, two-story brick and concrete building that also will feature a library and media center with a wall of windows above the school’s main entrance.

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