News

Jul 03, 2023

Demolition gets underway ahead of Durham school construction

Operator Bill Leatherman uses his excavator's massive jaws to pick apart a modular structure on the Durham Intermediate School campus in Durham, California on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The demolition of

Operator Bill Leatherman uses his excavator's massive jaws to pick apart a modular structure on the Durham Intermediate School campus in Durham, California on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The demolition of all portable structures at the school was just the beginning of a $10.5 million construction project that will take about a year to complete. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

Operator Bill Leatherman uses his excavator's massive jaws to crush the interior of a modular structure on the Durham Intermediate School campus in Durham, California on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The demolition of all portable structures at the school was just the beginning of a $10.5 million construction project that will take about a year to complete. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

Operator Bill Leatherman uses his excavator's massive jaws to flatten the wall of a modular structure on the Durham Intermediate School campus in Durham, California on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. The demolition of all portable structures at the school was just the beginning of a $10.5 million construction project that will take about a year to complete. (Ed Booth/Enterprise-Record)

DURHAM — With the revving of an engine, followed by a series of loud cracking noises and then the groans of protest from wood and metal being dismantled, the Durham Unified School District took the first steps toward a shiny and modern intermediate school Friday morning.

Excavator driver Bill Leatherman, of W.C. Maloney demolition contractors of Stockton, went to work flattening one of several portable buildings on the Durham Intermediate School campus at about 10:15 a.m. The wooden structures were no match for the massive jaws of the excavator, which reduced the classroom buildings to rubble within a few minutes.

Those portable buildings have clearly been semi-permanent for years. When the demolition is complete sometime before the Aug. 16 start of school, though, they’ll just be nostalgic memories for the students who’ve attended classes within their walls.

The $10.5 million project is the largest one which Measure X — which DUSD voters passed in November 2018 — has provided funds to undertake thanks to its $19.7 million bond issue.

Once finished, Durham Intermediate students and staff will enjoy permanent modular buildings, one of which will be a new administration building. Designs call for “flex space” connected to a library, allowing students to eat meals on their own campus for the first time. Intermediate students have been walking to the nearby Durham High School cafeteria for lunch since the middle school opened in 1982-83.

The project includes eight new classrooms — augmenting the four existing ones in the 1982 structure — and a new restroom building. The administration facility will feature a counseling office, conference room, large reception area, principal’s office, nurse’s office and a work space for teachers.

District Superintendent John Bohannon said the project’s schedule calls for the facility to be ready for the start of the 2024-25 school year.

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