Work Continues On Binghamton School Projects

The Binghamton City School District's MacArthur Elementary School, which was destroyed in the 2011 flood, will be torn down starting September 30.

The school board has accepted a $447,000 bid from Gorick Construction for the demolition of the building on Vestal Avenue on Binghamton's South Side.  The demolition is expected to take 6-8 weeks, with construction on a new school scheduled to begin in January.

The new building, on the same site, is to be elevated above the flood plain to prevent future catastrophic damage.  The new facility is projected to cost $79.5 million.

Meanwhile, members of the school board have also been updated on the progress of asbestos abatement at the Calvin Coolidge Elementary School.

Students normally attending class at that building have been spread among three other schools since the start of the fall semester after disturbed asbestos was confirmed in a crawl space in the basement of Calvin Coolidge at the end of the last school year.

The district says, as with the MacArthur rebuild, the work is on schedule at Coolidge. The plans now call for the cleaning out of the crawl space instead of sealing it off and the cleaning of the rest of that building.

Students are expected to be allowed back in the Calvin Coolidge School in December.