Southwick Selectman Joseph Deedy, center, gestures while touring the Powder Mill Middle School with, left-right, Mike McGarry, project manager, Karl Steinhart, chief administrative officer for the Town of Southwick, Steve Presnal, Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District business manager, and Eric Morgan, building and grounds supervisor. Officials toured Woodland Elementary School and Powder Mill Middle School last year as renovations continue in the school district. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional Schools Superintendent Dr. John Barry told the School Committee this week that the campus-wide school construction projects are moving along.
“The high school is wrapped in a vapor barrier and we are going to begin masonry work soon,” he said.
Barry walked through the middle school addition at the high school and said “it’s being defined and it’s going fast.”
The high school will become a 7-12 combined middle and high school, with the middle and high school classrooms separated by wings. There will be spaces used by all grades, such as the auditorium, gymnasium, technology center, and library.
Barry said over the winter, the renovations at Woodland Elementary School moved very quickly.
Work in what will be the preschool, music and guidance wing is nearly complete, and Owner’s Project Manager PDS wants to move the guidance department and work in the other wing.
“Abatement has been done and electrical and plumbing have been roughed in,” Barry said. “When the heating season is over, they want to move music classes in the cafeteria so they can start on the auditorium.”
PDS is also considering taking down ceilings and ripping up floors in the corridors this spring while class is still in session. Barry said this would allow them to start those renovations as soon as students are out of the building for the summer.
“I walked through Woodland today,” he said Tuesday, “and the walls are up, windows are in and most electrical and mechanical is in. The sheet rock is going up and the target date for phase three at Woodland is May 30.”
He also said there’s an effort to expedite the boiler installation at Powder Mill Middle School, which will become the district’s intermediate school once all renovations are complete.
“Originally the plan was to build the boiler on the first floor and have it running for the 2014-2015 school year,” he said, “then they would reconstruct it in the basement, but we’re exploring building it once downstairs.”
The school committee and board of selectmen will tour the renovations April 17.
