South Lyon East High School in Final Stages

April 5th, 2007

by Nathan Mueller
South Lyon Herald
March 15, 2007

SOUTH LYON MI — The hallways of South Lyon East High School are already filled, seven months before students are to set foot in the building. About 100 workers and equipment fill the corridors as they frantically work to get the school ready for its grand opening in September.

Project Manager Sid Dotinga of Granger Construction said the project is about 85 to 87 percent complete.

“It has gone pretty smooth,” he said. “You always run into a few problems here and there, but we have had no major issues.”

South Lyon Community Schools district Superintendent Bill Pearson has been a regular on the construction site since groundbreaking. He walked through the building March 5 and couldn’t help but admire the progress.

"We are on time with every piece of construction and slightly under budget,” he said.

Some of the leftover money from the bond is being used to put concrete in the playground at Sayre Elementary and also new flooring and ceiling repairs at South Lyon High School.

South Lyon East High School is completely enclosed, with heat running throughout the building. Lockers were being built last week and many classrooms were just awaiting clean up.

Principal Larry Jackson’s office and the main office corridor were nearly finished as well. Furniture and appliances were absent, but will be in place in the coming months.

The main office is located at the entrance where parents drop off their students. It also is connected to the student service center, which provides the students a more centralized hub. All the doors of counselors and administrators are sound sealed to provide privacy.

One of the gems of the school is the theater. It has two balcony levels, plus a technical gallery. Lower level seats surround the stage.

Dirt still covered the floor of the 802-seat complex as workers set up all the electrical wires.

“The farthest seat from the center of the stage is only 91 feet,” Dotinga said. “This type of setup gives you a more intimate feel.”

Another impressive part of the high school is the gymnasium. The floor has already been laid and will be painted in the coming weeks. It has three full-size courts, and curtains to divide them. A running track, that hasn’t been surfaced, forms the upper bowl of the gym. Fans will enter the gym through a lone set of doors, walk through a lobby that has a soft rubber floor for cheerleading practice and cross the track to walk down gated areas to their seats in the bleachers.

The 2,100-square-foot gym has seating for 2,142 people. The bleachers have yet to be installed.

Outside the building, workers were installing the bleachers for the football field. It has seating for 1,396 home fans and 548 away fans. The bathrooms and concession buildings are completed and a fieldhouse also is in its final stages.

The fieldhouse has three locker rooms and a large storage area for equipment.

Sportexe is being used to surface the football field, while the other three practice fields were seeded in the fall of 2005. The softball and baseball diamonds were seeded in 2005 as well.

Dotinga said he hopes to have most of the athletic fields ready by summer for use.

Estimated enrollment for South Lyon East when it opens is 434 ninth and 10th grade students.

It will have junior varsity sports teams until the following year when it will have varsity and junior varsity sports.

Athletic Director Larry Janes said he still has about nine coaching positions still to fill before school begins.

Teaching positions are still being solidified. About 16 staff members have already been chosen to fill roughly 26 positions, said Melissa Meister, assistant superintendent for administrative services.

Some positions will be shared between the two high schools.

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