Arturo Morales, left, cuts ceiling tiles for Jose Guadalupe Rodriguez as they work on a classroom at City Park School on Wednesday. Students return to classes on Tuesday and school officials say there should be little disruption during school hours because of ongoing construction.

DALTON, Ga. — Students at City Park School will return to school on Tuesday to freshly painted hallways; a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system; new halogen lighting and very little disruption, school system officials say.

For Brookwood students, the signs of a continuing construction project will be a little more prevalent and invasive. 

The work at the two schools is part of a project for which the Dalton Board of Education approved $14.3 million in bonds earlier this year for land for the new 6/7 grade school on the North Bypass and for renovations at those schools as well as Dalton High School and Roan. Dalton High School’s new HVAC system and other renovations are completed heading into the new school year, and Roan’s construction has not begun. The construction projects are part of the latest ESPLOST V (Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) that went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Dalton Public Schools Director of Operations Rusty Lount said the square design of Brookwood has been problematic for contractors. Work at both elementary schools is being done by Parrish Construction. 

“I really feel like Parrish has done an excellent job,” Lount said. “They took on a big project. I’m real pleased with the projects they have done. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time.”

City Park, which was originally the campus of Dalton High School, was opened in 1956.

Students should experience little impact from the ongoing construction, school officials said. Work during the school year will be done mainly after 4 p.m. each day. After-school care at both schools will be in contained areas away from the school. At Brookwood, students will be in the gymnasium after school, and students at City Park will be in the cafeteria. 

“You will see some contractors in and out of the campuses,” Lount said. “You will see some odd work going on. One of the most important things at both schools is we would ask that the parents please think about the school being an active campus so after 4 o’clock we would like to see the campus as empty and clear so the construction workers can work at night and get the job done for our schools.”

Brookwood Principal Celeste Martin said a renovation at her school, which was opened in 1963, was long overdue. 

“Our staff has been very excited about the opportunity for a renovation here at Brookwood School for many years,” Martin said. “We have had the need for a new roof for a long time — suffered through many leaks in many classrooms. We all know there are growing pains involved in progress, and I think we went into the project knowing we would have to be patient and would have to be flexible. The scope of the work for the summer was kind of large.” 

Brookwood students will have to deal with more invasive work. Four classrooms at a time will be worked on and students in those classes will be in alternative classrooms. 

“We have classrooms that will be on rotation throughout the school year,” Martin said. “They will roll into a temporary space and go back into their permanent space once that is complete.”

Work at both schools is scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer in 2019.