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Photo and story: Abby Fox By ABBY FOX
To catch the next in-person tour of the school construction and renovation projects ongoing at the middle school and the high school science labs, the early birds have the advantage.
The public tours are held every other Thursday, with the first tour of the high school construction at 7:30 a.m., and 8:30 a.m. is the time for the tour of the middle school. Ken Romeo of Strategic Building Solutions, of Old Saybrook, Conn., the project manager, gives the tours, and people meet in the back parking lots to gather and borrow a hard hat.
Last Thursday, Romeo talked about the urgency to meet their deadline of Aug. 21. By that date, two things need to be completed, he said: the high school’s new science labs – including all the masonry, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work; and at the middle school, the gym floor demolition and clean-up, with portable classroom installation. The teachers come back to work Aug. 30 – which doesn’t leave the contractors much time for errors or delays. Former school committee chair Sue Cienki asked if it would be near-impossible to get the work done by then and Romeo said no, but the timeline is “very, very tight.”
At Cole Junior High, demolition of the old gym, and of classrooms 7, 8, and 9, started last Monday, and that work has about a week more left to go. The demo means that six portable classrooms that were in the back had to be moved to the front of the school, where the parking lot, shrubs and a tree have been removed. Besides pointing to the front, where the “green team” is moving into portable classrooms, Romeo also showed the classrooms being retrofitted for the next school year, while construction of the new middle school will take place. The former woodworking classroom is being turned into a temporary band room. Next, the cafeteria will serve double duty as a food station and a substitute gymnasium, and third, the former home ec room is making way for a “purple team” classroom, to make up for the ones lost during the gym demo.
th portable classroom installation. The teachers come back to work Aug. 30 – which doesn’t leave the contractors much time for errors or delays. Former school committee chair Sue Cienki asked if it would be near-impossible to get the work done by then and Romeo said no, but the timeline is “very, very tight.”
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