Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
Walking on stilts, construction worker Miguel Blanco installs new ceiling tiles Monday in the hallways of Leonardtown Middle School.
St. Mary’s public schools open for students in one week. The first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 24. And for students and staff at Leonardtown Middle and Oakville Elementary, ongoing construction projects add to the excitement and angst of the first day of school.
Oakville Elementary School is just beginning a year-long renovation, while Leonardtown Middle School will wrap up its multi-year project this winter.
Sixth-graders were most impacted by the construction at Leonardtown Middle as they split their school days between the school and classroom trailers several miles away behind Benjamin Banneker Elementary School in Loveville.
That disruption is over and all sixth, seventh and eighth grade students will again spend their whole school day at Leonardtown Middle.
“We’re on schedule,” Leonardtown Middle School Principal Lisa Bachner said. The fourth phase of the Leonardtown project will be mostly wrapped up by the time school starts next week, and will include a modernized media center, new nursing office and several remodeled classrooms, she said.
The media center will be finished, but it will take a few more weeks to reshelve all of the books and resources, Bachner said, adding that there will be an open house for the media center at the school improvement team meeting in late September.
Scheibel Construction started work on the $11.6 million renovation project in spring 2010. Bachner praised the firm and its workers for being conscious of safety for the children at school.
The fifth and final phase of the project has already begun and will consist of remodeling the art rooms and computer labs at the school. That should all be completed by the time students return from winter break in the new year.
The school did away with the old design of clustered classrooms known as pods. These open classrooms, a relic of the school’s construction in the 1970s, were disliked by many teachers because of the distractions from other classes.
“They’re gone,” Bachner said, adding that the architect did a nice job redesigning the classrooms.
The school also now features a new heating and air conditioning system, new flooring, ceilings, paint and lighting.
“They’re such good changes, I think [parents and students] are excited,” even though they have had to put up with the construction for one and a half school years, Bachner said.
Oakville construction begins
Just as quickly as the Leonardtown Middle students move out of the classroom trailer annex in Loveville, Oakville Elementary students will move in.
All Oakville students will spend this school year at the trailer annex in Loveville during an extensive renovation to the school.
When the students and staff return in August 2012, the school will feature new central air and heating, a new bus loop and entrance and new playground equipment, among other upgrades.
Meanwhile, Oakville parents and students can check out their temporary quarters behind Banneker Elementary on Aug. 23 at 3 p.m., the day before the first day of school.
“I think the school year is going to go fine,” Christie Davis, the school’s PTA treasurer, said. “So far it seems like they’re doing a very good job organizing it, as good as can be.”
She has a son who will be starting kindergarten next week. He, like the rest of the Oakville students, will have to ride the bus a little farther to the annex. Other than that, Davis said, having all of the improvements done to the school will be worth it.
Oakville also moved back its start time by 15 minutes so it would not coincide with Banneker Elementary’s start time.
Preliminary work at Oakville started this spring and active construction started earlier this summer.
Dennis Anderson Construction Corp. was awarded in May a $2.1 million contract for the renovation after it was rebid from the year before when bids came in over budget.
The contract included an additional construction contingency of $470,000, more than half of which could be used to replace the school’s single-pane windows with energy-efficient ones.There will also be more energy-efficient lighting in the school.
The St. Mary’s County Board of Education also approved a contract to separate the Oakville bus loop and parking area from the student drop-off area and staff parking. Parents had called for improvements for several years, citing the risks of students walking between buses to get to the parking lot and dangers exiting and entering the school on a busy Route 235.
“I think that’s a lot safer for the children,” Davis said.
The State Highway Administration did not find a traffic light was warranted at the school, but did approve a full traffic signal just north of the school at the intersection with Loveville Road. There are also planned improvements to the intersection of School House Road and Route 235 in front of the school.
jyeatman@somdnews.com