Three months and several million dollars later, renovations at Dakota High School are just about complete for the start of the 2012-13 academic year.

Chippewa Valley Schools approved $5.9 million from past bond issues to cover construction and sitework projects for the district’s elementary, middle and high schools, with the expectation that the work would be completed during the summer months.

At Dakota, this work included around $1 million in roofing repairs, 100,000 square feet of new carpeting and the transformation of three classrooms into CAD labs for the district’s career and technical education program. (CAD, an acronym for computer-aided design, is the 21st-century version of drafting.)

The school’s auto shop was converted into a fabrication lab for CAD as well as several classrooms formerly used for the life centered career education (LCCE) program, which was moved to another area of the building.

An entirely new space was created out of two separate classrooms for the future mechatronics lab – a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering – that is slated to become the newest addition to Chippewa Valley’s career and technical education options.

Additional renovations included the creation of a large group instruction (LGI) room, a new wrestling room (the old room was used to provide additional square footage for the LGI), updates to the building’s card reader system for security, upgrades to the auxiliary gym, a new physics lab, improvements to the LCCE rooms and work on the school’s athletic fields and stadium parking.

Roughly 100,000 square feet of carpeting was replaced on the second floor, with another 100,000 square feet scheduled to be replaced on the first floor next summer. Students and staff may also notice new display cases near the gym and all new furniture in the main office and some classrooms.

One of the most visible renovations though is the completely repaved front entrance. Here work crews have replaced cracked sidewalks with stamped concrete and new benches to take the place of those installed at the school's opening.

While many of these projects still require finishing touches, Barton Malow Project Manager George Anthony said he expects all renovations to be complete by the first day of school which, for Chippewa Valley, is Sept. 4.