MEXICO – Forestry and building trades students won’t have to move after all, thanks to an agreement worked out between the Region 9 School of Applied Technology board and administration and the general contractors for the school’s $4.9 million renovation and construction project.

School director Brenda Gammon said Friday that the search for an alternative site for the two programs while construction was going on has stopped because such sites were too costly.

“It would have cost between $15,000 and $18,000 to house the programs until the end of the school year,” she said. “We couldn’t justify spending the money. That would have taken away from other things, like equipment.”

General contractors Bowman Brothers of Newport had planned to begin work on the interior of the school on the first of February. After talks with Region 9, the company agreed to devote its energies to completing the exterior addition. Work on the interior will begin when school closes in June.

Once the new section is completed, the forestry program will move into the new section while building trades will return to its original site, which will have been completely renovated.

Metal trades, which is also located in the bay section of the school, will move to the River Valley Technology Center so that the electrical offerings can be accessed, as planned, until the end of the school year.

The certified nursing assistant and computer technology programs will remain in the school, but be relocated within the school while contractors make connections between the old and new sections of the building.

Gammon said the entire project is expected to be completed by August, according to last week’s construction meeting.

The Facilities Committee, Gammon and representatives from Bowman Brothers will meet at 10 a.m. Jan. 24.