The exterior grounds are torn up around Nathan Bishop Middle School on the city’s East Side which is in the midst of a $35-million overhaul.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Drive down Elmgrove Avenue these days and you will see the stately Nathan Bishop Middle School encircled by chain-link fencing, the sloping lawn replaced by mounds of dirt, the front steps missing.

The $35-million renovation of the East Side school is well under way, according to Alan Sepe, the city’s acting director of public property.

While the exterior of the three-story brick building remains largely untouched, the interior has been gutted. Construction crews are removing plumbing, electrical and heating systems, tearing out the old floors and removing the gymnasium. And they are starting to install new pipes and conduits for the electrical system. The brick exterior will be cleaned and re-pointed and a new entrance to the school will be built.

“We’re on target,” Sepe said recently. “The building will be open next fall.”

Nathan Bishop was slated to be closed because of declining enrollments and chronically low test scores until a group of East side parents lobbied hard to keep the school open. Former Supt. Donnie Evans appointed a parent-led study committee to come up with a design for the new school and, last summer, a design firm called Architecture Involution recommended a wholesale renovation of the building.

The consultants recommended restoration rather than new construction because recent changes in school construction regulations allow a larger volume of square footage if the project involves a restoration rather than new construction. The additional space means that the school can keep its existing auditorium and retain additional rooms for teacher planning and and allow for wider hallways.

With a restoration, the consultants said that there is a greater likelihood that the school will open in the fall of 2009 because groups such as the Providence Preservation Society will look more favorably on a restored Nathan Bishop. Renovation will also allow the architects to restore many of the building’s original features, including skylights that will flood the building with natural light.

The new Nathan Bishop calls for 10 classrooms on each floor, with two teams of 100 students per floor. Each of the building’s three floors will house one grade, for a maximum of 750 students, although area parents are hoping for a smaller population.

The plan also calls for a two-story library and media center on the second and third floors but leaves the school with two separate gymnasiums of 3,000-square-feet each. Virtually every surface will be touched, the architects said: windows will be replaced, brass and marble surfaces will be restored and the grounds will undergo extensive landscaping.

The East Side Public Education Coalition, the parents’ group, has recommended that Nathan Bishop offer student advisories, team teaching and an advanced academic curriculum open to all students.

lborg@projo.com