Phelps Center breaks ground for new library media center

Construction for an approximately 6,000-square-foot library media center at Phelps Center for the Gifted, 934 S. Kimbrough Ave., began Aug. 29 with a ground-breaking ceremony at the construction site.

According to Ron Hampton, coordinator of gifted education for Springfield Public Schools, the library media center project is the last project from the bond issue approved by voters in April 2000. The $30 million bond issue funded a total of 12 projects within the district.

Flintco Inc. is the general contractor for the project. The project architect is Jim Rutledge. Hampton said the construction bid was for $713,068. The library media center is scheduled for completion April 1, 2003.

Once the library media center is finished, Phelps will put it to good use.

"We have an all-purpose room that is a combination cafeteria and library, so this is going to allow us to have a location to have a library and our technology, but (also) to recapture the use of our all-purpose room," Hampton said. " We will have a research lab in there of computers so kids can use the Internet to access databases and do research."

Hampton said research is a major component of the gifted program, Working with Individual Needs of Gifted Students

There are about 850 students enrolled in the WINGS program, Hampton said. Gifted children in kindergarten through eighth grade attend the Phelps Center one day per week and attend their regular schools in the district for the remainder of the week.

"It's a program designed to meet not only their academic needs as gifted children, but their affective needs as well socio-emotional needs," Hampton said.