DATE: Tuesday, October 14, 1997             TAG: 9710140299

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: BARCO                             LENGTH:   94 lines

NEW CURRITUCK HIGH NEARLY FINISHED LATEST HEADACHE WON'T DELAY LONG- AWAITED OPENING.

After 2 1/2 years of construction miscues, public criticism, fights with the contractor and high blood pressure, school administrators still can't call the new Currituck County High School complete.

But it's close, and it's looking good, they say.

``I just think it is a beautiful facility,'' said Mary Ellen Maxwell, chairwoman of the Currituck County School Board. Maxwell, the board, Superintendent Ronnie Capps, and project overseers Skip Sanders and Staley Powell toured the 165,000-square-foot building Monday.

``I love the roominess and airiness. It's a good feeling,'' Maxwell said.

The headaches aren't quite over yet.

Sanders recently found out the parking lot asphalt was not compacted properly and must be scraped off and repaved - a two-week job if everything goes well, he said. The correction should not prevent the school from opening by January. The asphalt is the latest in a long line of problems that have delayed the project 1 1/2 years.

``We need to credit Skip and Staley for overseeing the project,'' said board member John Barnes. ``Otherwise we would have been moved in here with tons of problems.''

The building still needs to pass several inspections, including a final air quality test. Molds, found within the school last spring posed a health threat and had to be cleaned off.

``The last six months have been very frustrating because when you walk in the building, it looks essentially finished,'' Capps said.

The new school is twice the size of the current high school, which sits next to it, and offers all sorts of amenities that students and staff should like, said Sanders, the director of facilities and planning for Currituck County Schools.

The hallways, 13 feet wide, are 5 feet wider than those the Currituck students are used to. Large windows allow for plenty of outdoor views and sunshine. One of the biggest criticisms of the old high school, built 21 years ago, was the shortage of windows.

Full-length lockers, 100 more student parking spaces, and individual shower stalls in the locker room are all extras that should make student life a little nicer, Sanders said.

``Every student I've had in here has thoroughly enjoyed it,'' said Sanders.

``This school provides a lot more opportunities for the students,'' said board member Garry Owens. ``That's really the bottom line.''

Faculty members will get their own parking area and spacious classrooms each with phone and computer hookups. Teachers of art, oceanography, science, home economics, photography, health sciences and journalism will all have rooms supplied specifically for their specialties. For the theater arts, there is a 900-seat auditorium with a large stage.

The new 900-seat gymnasium has coaches excited. The gym is large enough that side basketball goals are also regulation length. A partition at center court will allow two teams to practice at the same time, cutting back on late-ending practices.

``It's the class of the East Coast as far as I'm concerned,'' said Reuben Godfrey, assistant principal and head coach for boys basketball.

To increase security, 40 video cameras will monitor the school inside and out 24 hours a day.

The mauve-colored walls are supposed to create a relaxed feeling, but some residents have insisted that the school colors - red and white - should dominate the decorating scheme.

Board member John Barnes can't understand the criticism. Lockers and several highlights and trims within the school are red, especially in the gymnasium.

Some residents have complained they can't recognize the front of the school. Barnes explained that the front of the school does not directly face the road because of the need to accommodate land space for sewerage lines.

The new $16 million school is the largest building project in the county's history. It was supposed to open by September 1996.

Trafalgar House, the beleaguered general contractor, has been fired and rehired, penalized and pressured during the project that began with a well-publicized groundbreaking in May 1995.

County commissioners had to rebid the project in March 1995 when the original contractor broke from its parent company. Trafalgar House won the second bid. By the groundbreaking in May 1995, the plans for the building were a year-and-a-half old and the completion first fell behind schedule by a half-month.

By February 1996, because of weather delays and a shortage of skilled construction workers, the project was behind by a month. Then followed a series of mistakes by the contractor and subcontractors.

Crews painted over places where moisture had leaked into the building. It had to be dried and redone.

An inspection uncovered several leaking windows that had to be replaced.

Because of leaks from the outside walls and a failure to keep the building cleaned, molds formed in 48 places within the building. The molds posed a health threat and had to be removed. Inspectors still have to conduct one more air quality test in the building.

In August 1996, school board members met with Trafalgar House officials and gave them an ultimatum to finish the school or be replaced.

In January 1997, the board fired Trafalgar House, but then it rehired the company the next month, believing that to be the best way to get the school finished.

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