WESTFIELD – Students returning to classes this week will find school buildings in remarkable shape because of the work performed over the summer by the custodial staff, and in some cases parents, to make the buildings sparkle.
Members of the School Committee conducted their annual school building tours yesterday afternoon and reported that the buildings are in great shape, although there are a few blemishes, mostly cosmetic.
The committee members divided into three teams to inspect all of the school facilities in the district.
Ramon Diaz and William Duval inspected the Franklin Avenue, Highland, Abner Gibbs and the Westfield Vocational Technical High School. Diaz noted that the none of the elementary schools his team inspected have been equipped with “hot spots” to facilitate wifi signals needed to support several educational programs.
That team also reported that the Fire Department conducted it’s annual fire safety inspection and identified several issues that need to be addressed before students return on Thursday.
One of the major fire safety issues is at the WVTHS where a fire door in the school gym is not functioning properly.
“That fire door has to be fixed before the school opens,” Diaz said. “The Fire Department says it has to be working properly.”
Diaz did give good marks to WVTHS for replacing much of the furniture in classrooms during the past year.
“The furniture is leaps and bounds better than when I first came onto the (School) Committee,” Diaz said. “That furniture was bad last year when I toured the building.
Duval said that the elementary schools are having to make adjustments because of the high number of late student registrations.
“At Abner Gibbs 10 new students show up last week,” Duval said, adding that five new students were enrolled at Franklin Avenue yesterday.
Michael Terrill and Diane Mayhew toured Paper Mill and Munger Hill elementary schools, the Fort Meadow Early Childhood school and the South Middle School.
“The buildings look great,” Mayhew said. “Sparkly clean.”
Terrill said there was also cosmetic work done at several of the buildings. The major improvements to the Paper Mill roof are almost complete, while the Munger Hill roof replacement work will continue this fall after school hours and on weekends to be completed.
“The school looked great,” Terrill said. “It’s obvious that everyone takes great pride in the way the schools looked.”
The last team, Committeeman Kevin Sullivan and School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion toured Westfield High School, the North Middle School, and Southampton Road and the Juniper Park elementary schools.
Sullivan report that the environmental system improvements at WHS were substantially completed, with one unit yet to be installed on the roof of the building and that the athletic field improvements at the North Middle School have been completed.
“The North Middle School janitorial staff and teachers were beaming with pride,” Sullivan said of the staff.
Sullivan said there is one issue of concern at the Southampton Road Elementary School where a sink hole has opened in the playground area near the playscape enclosure, The district has retained a engineering consultant, Tighe & Bond, to determine the extent of the sink hole, which appears to have grown over an abandoned well.
“I hope all of the custodians, teachers and staff members who worked so hard to get the school ready for students know how proud we are,” Sullivan said.
