The middle school construction project continues to hum along and every day it is looking more and more like a school.

The academic wing has progressed the furthest and they have started painting rooms. Finishing will begin this winter in those rooms.

Drywall has begun in other parts of the building and painting should begin this month in other sections. The hope is to get the building completely closed in by the end of the year. There may be a few lingering doors, but the buttoning has certainly begun.

Some big ticket items, such as the walk-in cooler and elevator are scheduled to arrive in the upcoming weeks.

As you might know, our primary heat source will be sewer thermal from the adjacent sewer treatment plant. Much of the piping has been laid for this system already.

If you have been by the school, you may have noticed that exterior siding has been going up and the gymnasium has been completed, as has the north side of the building. The rest, including the front, should be done in the next couple of months.

The building exterior will look complete for months while workers focus on the inside in preparation for turning over the building to the school district in early July. Once it is turned over to us, furniture will start arriving and we will begin the process of setting up the building.

We are presently in the midst of identifying furniture. We will likely reuse most of our classroom furniture as our budget doesn’t permit replacing everything. We are focusing on public spaces first. Fortunately, most of our classroom furniture is in decent condition as we had been replacing it regularly for the past decade.

One of the features many of us associated with the school are most excited about is the playground. It is going to be truly amazing and I am confident it will become a treasured part of our community.

Work has begun on creating this space. I have heard that the stainless steel slide that will go down a slope within the playground has arrived on site. We recently selected handholds for the climbing wall that is also a part of that space.

In addition to a few traditional pieces of equipment, the space will include tunnels, boulders, and natural play spaces. There is a significant amount of granite built into to the aesthetic of the space and that has also arrived onsite.  The toughest part will be likely be keeping people off the playground while the grass takes seed and it has a chance to get established next spring and summer.

We have known since ground breaking that the entire site will not be turned over to us until early November, a couple of months after school has started. This will mean that we may need to use a side entrance for a few weeks as the contractor finishes up the front earth work to create a bus loop, staff parking, and parent drop-off loop after demolition and site prep.

We are planning how to best address this situation in order for a safe and streamlined start of school in 2020.

We can’t wait to be in the new building and hope you share in our excitement for this great new addition to our community.