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Last month, Prince Edward School Board members were promised that they would start to see the renovated elementary school really ‘take shape’ this summer. Now they have a better idea of what that’ll mean. During the group’s Wednesday, May 7 meeting, board members heard from Alex Amos, a project manager with English Construction and himself a graduate of Prince Edward High. Amos detailed what’s happening now at Prince Edward Elementary and what will be coming in the next couple of months. 

“We have a big summer ahead of us,” Amos told the board. “We have a lot of work planned for this summer.” 

That includes new roofs going up all over the site. Shingles are being placed on Buildings A and C at the elementary school, and a replacement for the roof in Building G. The steel frame is also currently going up. 

“The trusses, the main steel trusses down the corridor of the new addition, will be starting to show up next week on site,” Amos said. “So it’ll be really neat to see that taking place for the kids before they leave for summer break, to see the frame of the building going up.”

He added that everyone on staff understands its been SOL (Standards of Learning) exam time, so they’ve been trying to stay quiet where they can while working.

“We know the primary focus is to educate kids here while we’re building them a new school,” Amos said.  

By the time kids and teachers return to class in August, he added, everyone should be able to see the shell of the new addition, Building E, taking shape. It’ll start to be closed in, with roof panels going on in August, Amos said. 

Moving forward at Prince Edward Elementary

At this point, demolition of the two oldest buildings at the elementary school is finished. When the renovation is done, in their place will be new construction connecting the remaining buildings, making it much easier to travel between classrooms. The renovation also involves more seating options, bigger classrooms in some cases and more options for hands-on learning, all of which were asked for by parents and staff during the community meetings in 2023. 

The underground electric work inside Building E wrapped up in April. The team from English Construction also finished underground plumbing and excavated the east side of the new addition. They’ve moved and reconnected fiber optic lines, finished the stem windows in Building E and filled in windows in Building G.

“(We’re) starting to see a lot of progress,” Amos said. “The winter weather is behind us. (It) certainly was challenging in January and February with the snow and ice, but we’re making a lot of hay while the sun is shining.” 

An international challenge

Another issue that English and Moseley Architects are dealing with involves tariffs. Some of the materials needed for the renovations come from overseas. 

“Currently the team at Moseley and ourselves are navigating (the) supply chain and tariffs,” Amos said. “Everybody watches the news. As you can imagine, going into a building where we have hundreds of pieces, thousands of pieces from all over the world coming to Farmville, it’s been quite a challenge, but we can see light at the end of the tunnel for most of the things.”

On Monday, May 12, the United States and China announced a deal to temporarily slash tariffs each country had placed on the other. The U.S. in April imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports. That will temporarily drop to 30%. In turn, China will cut duties on U.S. imports from 125% to 10%. Those measures will be in effect for 90 days. China is the world’s leading producer of cement, while also exporting waterproofing materials, tiles and other construction pieces. Meanwhile, a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from Canada remains in effect. 

Crunching the numbers 

As a refresher, the cost for the renovation came in at $38,097,500. That’s going to be paid for using three pots of money. First, Prince Edward County received a $8.655 million grant from the Virginia Capital Projects Fund. Second, the county applied for and got a loan through the Virginia Literary Loan Fund. That was $25 million, to be paid back over a 20-year period at a rate of 3% interest. The remaining portion will be paid through bonds issued by the Virginia Public School Authority (VPSA). That’ll be paid back over a 25-year period, at a 4% interest rate.

So when all is said and done, including interest, Prince Edward will pay $61.358 million to cover the cost of the project.