South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Construction kicks off on state-of-the-art Lindbergh High School after groundbreaking

Lindbergh+Schools+Superintendent+Tony+Lake+at+the+groundbreaking+ceremony+for+the+new+Lindbergh+High+School+in+2020.+
Photo by Erin Achenbach
Lindbergh Schools Superintendent Tony Lake at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lindbergh High School in 2020.

Construction is underway on the new state-of-the-art Lindbergh High School, after the school district officially kicked off the project in a socially distanced groundbreaking Sept. 25.

Sporting green Flyers masks, Lindbergh Schools administrators and Board of Education members joined Lindbergh High School students and staff to break ground on a state-of-the-art new Lindbergh High School that Principal Eric Cochran promised will provide flexible learning opportunities for generations of future students.

From left, sophomore Megan Manaj and senior Carter Knuckles join Principal Eric Cochran and board member Karen Schuster. (Photo by Erin Achenbach)

“We have an opportunity now to teach in ways with this new building that we’ve been begging for for decades,” Cochran said at the groundbreaking. “We’ve always done a great job to prepare students academically. But now we’ll be able to do things that we’ve wanted to do for a really long time, for generations. I couldn’t be more excited both as a principal just to be part of this, a parent with a student and knowing this is going to impact my own children and the other children in this community.”

Lindbergh voters overwhelmingly approved Prop R, a $105 million no-tax-rate-increase bond issue to revitalize the Lindbergh High School campus and create districtwide safety equity through secure vestibules in April 2019. More than 77 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of Prop R, which as a bond issue required 57.15 percent for approval.

Superintendent Tony Lake noted that December will mark three years since he interviewed for the position as Lindbergh superintendent, when he had a conversation with the board about the need for a new Lindbergh High. The three years since has included lots of planning and developing, culminating in the construction.

Seeing the vision come to fruition, the word that came to Lake’s mind the most was “exciting,” but the impact to the district and its residents goes beyond that, he said.

“We’re setting our community on a good trajectory for the next 50 to 60 years with this building, and we’re so super excited,” Lake said just before the shovels ceremonially entered the ground. “And I have to say it and I always do —  thank you, community. Without your support we couldn’t be doing this. Thank you for valuing public education and always supporting us and our needs.”

The Board of Education voted 6-0 June 30 to move forward with the second phase of the $89 million three-phase construction project, which includes new construction that will connect existing facilities, extensive renovations of existing facilities and abatement across the campus.

Four prequalified general contractors responded, and at $65.7 million, BSI Constructors Inc. was the lowest responsible bidder that met the district’s specifications.

LHS construction is taking place in three phases. Phase 2 will include construction of a new three-story structure that will connect existing buildings on the high school campus, in addition to renovation and remodeling work in existing buildings.

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