By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – A local engineering firm will complete architectural design work for renovations to the former Thompson High School building over the next several weeks, as the Alabaster Board of Education approved the next phase of the project during a recent meeting.

School Board members voted unanimously during their Oct. 11 meeting to approve a contract with McKee and Associates to complete the design work on the renovations, marking the second major step toward completing the project in the past few weeks.

School Board members voted during a special-called Sept. 28 meeting to award a $563,855 bid to the Williford-Orman construction company to replace the VCT floor tile and repaint the former THS building on Warrior Drive.

Alabaster School Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers said the School Board will vote on more bids for the renovation project in the future.

The old THS building has been vacant since students moved into the new THS campus in February. Once the renovations are completed, Alabaster City Schools will be able to enact its plan to move school campuses beginning with the fall 2019 semester.

ACS is planning to move Thompson Middle School and Thompson Sixth Grade Center into the old THS building and then move Thompson Intermediate School into the current TMS building. The current Thompson Intermediate School will be renovated to serve as central office space for the school system.

The school moves originally were planned to take place in August after renovations were completed last summer, but the scope of the renovations to the old THS building were much more extensive than originally estimated, ACS leaders said previously.