Civil engineers at Hanscom AFB, Mass., are moving forward with plans to construct a state-of-the-art middle school on base thanks to a recent $31.6 million contract award. The 81,000-square-foot, two-story building is scheduled to open in September 2016, according to Hanscom’s Feb. 6 release. It will replace the base’s existing 1950s-era single-level middle school. “The setup of the building is going to be a little different; it won’t be your traditional classroom-by-classroom setting. There are a lot of common and open spaces,” said Erich Ledebuhr, the school’s principal. While the school is under construction, the base’s nearly 250 middle school students will use a temporary facility that workers must now erect. Plans are to construct a new primary school building after the middle school project is completed. (Hanscom report by Mark Wyatt)
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
