Bradley East Elementary addition complete

BRADLEY – The long-anticipated addition to Bradley East Elementary School is finally complete.

Students and teachers began using the new 17,160-square-foot space Jan. 27.

Slated to be ready by the start of the school year, delays with the project pushed the finish date back several times.

In the meantime, Bradley East teachers have been sharing classrooms, with some shared rooms at each grade level.

“It was a big undertaking from everybody because everybody was doubled up in the main building,” Superintendent Chris Hammond said.

The addition is a permanent modular structure, meaning pieces of the structure were built off-site and shipped to the school. It is attached to the main building and replaces the school’s former mobile classrooms.

It includes 10 classrooms, a multipurpose room, five offices and bathrooms. The final cost of the project was about $7.3 million, including the building, site work and electrical and fire alarm system costs.

The classrooms are primarily for the school’s preschool program.

The school has about 150 preschoolers.

Anthony Hudgins, a Bradley Elementary music teacher for 20 years, now has a permanent classroom. Previously, he would be the teacher to get bumped when more classroom space was needed. He sometimes had his own room, but sometimes he taught music from a cart.

“The kids love it,” Hudgins said. “I’ve got a new carpet, and they are having a lot of fun with that. It’s big. We’ve got a lot of nice sound in here. A lot of singing. I’m absolutely thrilled.”

The Bradley Elementary school board hosted its Thursday meeting in the new multipurpose room at Bradley East after a brief open house.

Hammond recognized the board for building up the district’s fund balance to carry out the project.

“It took some ingenuity in terms of how we were going to do that with the funding that we have,” he said. “There is no state funding for building projects. That ended in 2004, so schools have to be creative.”

Some punch-list items still need to be completed.

Temporary ramps were installed by the entrances to make the addition ready for occupancy.

The plan is to install concrete steps and ramps during spring break.

“Everything is falling in line slowly,” Hammond said. “It’s a good space. We’re glad to finally be here.”

Hammond inherited the project from his predecessor, former Superintendent Scott Goselin.

The board first approved the contract with Mobile Modular in January 2024.

Construction began in July and took about seven and a half months to complete.

“We had a lot of different setbacks along the way,” Hammond said.

In addition to the construction taking longer than expected, the board also approved a change order in October, which increased the cost of the project by about $800,000, as Mobile Modular did not include prevailing wage in its initial contract to pay workers who were not already part of labor unions.

“It didn’t come without pain, but we are here,” Hammond said. “It’s ours. … Our teachers and staff and kids are very resilient, and we are very fortunate to have them.”