City residents should begin to notice construction of the new baseball/softball stadium complex at Meridian High School by early summer as the major campus addition continues to move along on schedule, according to an update given to Meridian Public School District’s Board of Trustees at its regular monthly meeting on Monday.

“Everything is going very, very well,” said Gary Bailey of Ridgeland-based Bailey Architecture, which is overseeing the project. “We are ready to advertise this project on March 16 and start receiving bids on April 13.”

The much needed sports complex will be located on the south end of the Meridian high campus sandwiched between Ross Collins and the tennis courts on one end and the main campus to the north. For years Wildcats baseball has used Q.V. Sykes Baseball Complex across town for its home games while the Lady Wildcats have used Northeast Park Softball Complex as their home field.

Once completed, the new complex will bring both baseball and softball teams to the Meridian high campus, a prospect administrators, coaches and students have desired for decades.

The project will include constructing one playing field that will be used by both the baseball and softball teams who will coordinate practices and home games. It also includes construction of a field house for the baseball, softball and tennis teams, a concession stand and restrooms, as well as a covered sidewalk extending from the main campus to Ross Collins.

Unfortunately, a project of this size does not come without the school giving up something, Bailey noted.

The complex will absorb land that currently takes in 24th Avenue as it runs through campus, the current football practice field and an open area to the east.

“We will have to tear up the road between Ross Collins and the main campus,” Bailey told board members, saying that part of the project is expected to begin this summer.

Once construction begins, 24th Avenue will be closed and will no longer be an entrance to the campus beginning at the tennis courts as it runs north to the main campus.

Meridian high administrators continue to meet with the architect and school district operations officials to discuss options for traffic flow through campus next year as that street is part of the drop-off route. They are looking at every possible option that will cause the least amount of disruption to traffic while maximizing the safety of all, according to school district officials.

The sports complex is one of several additions and renovations about to kick off throughout Meridian Public Schools as part of an improvements package from the $34 million bond issue approved by city voters last August.

“It is going to be organized chaos for the next two years,” Bailey told board members.

But, once all of the projects are completed by December 2024, he said all of the city school campuses will have much-needed renovations, improvements and security upgrades.

Also during Monday’s board meeting, the school board approved awarding a nearly $3.2 million contract to McLain Plumbing & Electrical to complete plumbing upgrades to T.J. Harris Upper and Lower campuses, along with plumbing and air conditioning upgrades at the former Carver Middle School. The project is being paid for by pandemic relief money through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.

In other business, the school board approved the calendar for the 2023-2024 school year with the first day back set for Tuesday, Aug. 8, for students. Teachers will return on Wednesday, Aug. 2, for four days of professional development.

New to the school calendar next year will be the addition of two distance learning days on Oct. 6 and Feb. 16, both on a Friday. Students will participate in classes via remote learning those days.

Fall break is slated for Oct. 9-10 with a week-long spring break from March 11-15, 2024. A week-long Thanksgiving break will run from Nov. 20 through Nov. 24. Christmas break for students will begin Dec. 20 with students returning Jan. 3 for the beginning of the second semester.

Other holidays where students will be out of school include Sept. 4 for Labor Day, Jan. 15 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Feb. 19 for President’s Day, and March 29 and April 1, 2024, for Easter.

The last day of the 2023-2024 school year for students will be May 23 with the teachers going through May 24.

At the beginning of the meeting, the school board recognized the administration and staff of Crestwood, Magnolia, Meridian High, Northwest Middle, Oakland Heights, Parkview, Poplar Springs, T.J. Harris Upper and West Hills public schools for exceeding expectations during the 2021-2022 state assessments.

The school board also recognized the district’s finance department employees in recognition for all of their hard work after the district received a report from the Office of State Auditor indicating there were no audit findings during the district’s most recent audit.