Sixth and seventh graders have returned to Jenkins Middle School in northeastern Colorado Springs after the facility shut down in January after failing a fire inspection.
Colorado Springs District 11 invested $6.5 million in renovations to reopen the previously shuttered school in time for the fall semester, which began last week.
The Colorado Springs Fire Marshall raised serious concerns over the building's safety in January. The building’s foundation was shifting, particularly in the gym and media center. That resulted in structural and fire protection concerns, prompting the closure.
The district addressed those issues in the renovations, but still has a new academic wing to construct before 8th graders can return to the school.
The foundation work near the gym included micropiles, which involve drilling holes deep into the soil.
“The full weight of the building is now supported on the micropiles,” D11 Capital Program Manager Jennifer Hotaling said. “The micropiles go to bedrock and then 10 feet lower than that, and then they're grouted in place. So they're super strong and everything is held in place.”
The gymnasium is already hosting students and the district expects the media center to be finished later this year.
But the former seventh and eighth-grade wings were not as salvageable. Brian Construction and the district worked quickly to demolish the former academic wing and partition off the current construction area from the rest of the school, according to Superintendent Michael Gaal.
“We'll do the construction before we connect to the building,” he said. " So all the construction that happens this year will be segregated from the academic space.”
The new seventh and eighth-grade wing is moving to the south side of the building.
“To ensure that there are never any concerns anymore with proximity to the slope, to the creek, to the backfill,” said Gaal.
The money for the renovations and new $25 million academic wing is coming from the district's capital improvement fund.
“We've asked for no new taxes on our taxpayers to be able to fund this,” said Gaal. “We had planned to make these corrections in 2027.”
This is one of many renovation projects Colorado Springs District 11 is working on. Palmer High School is also getting a $100 million renovation.
“The average age of the building in District 11 is well over 60 years old. It's time for us to think differently about recapitalizing,“ said Gaal. “A good school in a neighborhood is good for everybody. Whether your kid goes to that school or not, it increases property values, increases desirability, and people moving to our city.”
Even though eighth graders aren’t in the building, around 800 students enrolled at Jenkins Middle School this year, which is around the same number as this time last year.
“We wanted to show people,” said Gaal, “we would move heaven and earth to get this school open– to retrofit the school, make sure it is safe, make sure we treat our staff and our community with respect, and we've delivered on that.”
