School trustees will know in three weeks whether Gaffney High School will receive new and improved entrances this summer.

That is when Cherokee Masonry is expected to provide the school board with prices from different contractors on the cost involved in changing the school entrances. The local masonry contractor is in the process of obtaining competitive bids on electrical, roofing and ceiling work that would be required for a design concept by Spartanburg architects McMillan Smith.

Cherokee Masonry will ed to take at least a year to complete.

Cherokee Masonry was awarded a maximum guaranteed price contract of $5 million for the masonry repairs.

The masonry repairs are being funded through a $10 million school district settlement reached last November with USF&G Surety, the bonding company for the original Gaffney High contractor Mitchell Construction.

Cherokee Masonry was selected by USF&G Surety over an Arkansas contractor which also bid on the masonry work, Carter told school trustees. Cherokee Masonry was able to use data gathered

from its previous evaluation

of Gaffney High in determining gather bids from contractors for construction work required for a new front and back entrance, a logo tower and landscaping, H2L Engineering President Bob Carter said. The Gaffney High improvements would include the addition of pitched roofs over the main canopy and front entrance and low railings along the roof to improve the school's appearance.

The masonry work would be done by Cherokee Masonry as a change order in its present contract for replacing the masonry on the outside walls of Gaffney High School, Carter said. Almost all of the outside brick at the school will need to be replaced, a task expectthe cost of the masonry repairs.

The settlement does not include money for the district to move forward with the Spartanburg architects' proposed ideas for improving the Gaffney High appearance.

"We are ready to move forward. We will have 71 days

this summer to work at Gaffney High," Carter said. "Cherokee Masonry will not start until the school year ends. Our recommendation would be to start work on the front entrance because this is the area most visible to the community."

A special called school board meeting will be scheduled

once Cherokee Masonry has received final prices on the cost of the additional Gaffney High entrance work, school board chairperson Sandra Greene said. The school board will review the figures and discuss whether to move forward with improvements to the school's entrances.