School Building Project Makes Progress

In March, residents voted to appropriate $15.5 million in additional funds for the school building project. The project is now in the building phase and making progress.

Exterior

The steel work is complete in the high school classroom building, School Committee Chairman Mel Webster said.

"The cement slab floors have been poured on the second and third stories and are complete," he told Patch.

Steel work is underway on several areas including the high school entrance and has just started on the main street area that will connect the two schools.  

There is currently a crane working on the construction of main street next to the Media Center. Soon the crane will move to the auditorium for additional work.

The administrative offices are nearly complete as is the Media Center and bridge to the high school from main street, Geof Simons, who volunteered to document the construction progress, said. The gym foundation is almost complete as well, he said, and the auditorium foundation is finished. 

The most difficult section to build is the long wall opposite and parallel to the middle school, Simons said. However, it is almost done and "the excavation for the foundation of the wall closest to the parking lot (back of the building) is almost done."  

Significant road work has been done on the main road that will lead to the two new schools, Webster said.

Interior

Superintendent Kathleen Willis, High School Principal Jon Bernard, Middle School Principal Catherine O'Connell and Director of Academic Services Patrick Daly have been meeting with the furniture contractor to look at student and teacher furniture samples for the new schools. During April vacation, they all traveled to a furniture showroom in Connecticut to get an idea of the newer trends in furniture design, Willis said. Over the next few weeks, they will travel to school districts in the area that have recently completed school building projects to see what furniture they are using in different classrooms to get a sense of how that furniture is working for students before they make any decisions.

They will also be identifying samples to set up sample classrooms so teachers and students can see what the rooms would look like, sit in the furniture and get a sense of how the furniture would serve their needs, Willis said. Students and teachers will have the opportunity to share their opinions about the furniture and thoughts about what they would like to see in the new building.

A Finishes Subcommittee met with the architects and looked at finishes for the walls, floors, fabrications for seats in the auditorium and more. Any finishes you can imagine this subcommittee reviewed, Willis said.

They created three or four boards with the finishes selected to present to the Secondary Schools Building Committee and they were beautiful, Willis said. The boards contained colors, textures and fabrics and "really bring the project to life." The boards were approved by the SSBC and the subcommittee has finished their work in the design process.

"Everything is going along as planned and we continue to work very closely with the project professionals to bring this project in on time and on budget," Willis said.

The high school is still projected to open in September of 2014 and the middle school in September of 2015, Webster said.

"This is a huge project and from my point of view it seems to be going as smoothly as possible. As far as the budget goes, we remain on the budget that we now have based on the additional funding approved at the March Town Meeting."