Education goes on despite two construction projects

Fairfield schools began classes this week working around two construction projects ? middle school?s HVAC changes and D Street repairs ? that have not impeded educational progress.

?D Street will open to local traffic tonight,? Jerry Long an engineer at French-Reneker Associates said this morning. ?The street is ?old? enough that it?s cured. Construction will be ongoing; driveways were just poured in the past few days, so they are not old enough to be driven on. We?ll have orange traffic cones on the sidewalks and driveways.?

Long is overseeing D Street?s improvement being worked on by Shipley Construction Co.

While everyone hoped construction would be complete by the first day of school, Long and Fred McElwee, Fairfield Community School District?s auxiliary services director, have stayed in communication.

?We opened [the intersection of D Street at] Madison Avenue before school started,? said Long. ?Fred agreed to stay on the summer bus schedule until the work is finished.?

Along with waiting for driveways and sidewalks to cure, Long said Shipley will finish grading the road and then seed areas that were disrupted. He anticipates that would be finished by Aug. 31, and D Street will once again be open to all traffic.

The first few days of classes at Fairfield Middle School have been ?going great,? said Principal Laura Atwood. ?All classrooms are usable and have new lights and new ceilings.?

The middle school has had contractors on site all summer, installing a new geothermal HVAC system.

?I think students expected to have air conditioning the first day,? said Atwood. ?But we knew that wasn?t the plan. However, they?ve been testing the system, so we?re starting to get some air. I can?t tell you how many teachers have said what a difference air conditioning makes. Students aren?t as sleepy or cranky, and the kids are excited. I hear whispers in the hallways about the air.

?It?s been a huge project,? she said. ?Matt [Jones, FMS associate principal] and I were talking about how much we appreciate the community?s support for this project. And staff has been great.?

After Labor Day, a few eighth grade classes will move out of the north wing for three or four weeks for continued construction work, said Atwood.

?We have the classrooms all ready where they will be moving,? she said. ?When those classes move back into their rooms, we?ll have a few classes from the south wing move out so their rooms can be completed.?

Work is ongoing outdoors too, but, ?We can see the light at the end of the tunnel,? said Atwood.

Parts of the school grounds south of the building have been gated-off so students aren?t walking over the newly installed well fields. The area will eventually be re-seeded with grass and opened back up.

?Contractors are working as quickly as possible,? said Atwood. ?We had a meeting before school began. We told the workers we want our kids to be as safe as possible and for the work to cause no distractions.

?Contractors have been accommodating. If noise becomes an issue, we can let them know, and they?ll stop and wait until after school. A lot of the work is being done after 3:30 p.m. when kids are gone.

?Our teachers have been very flexible and so positive through this whole thing,? said Atwood. ?I?ve told them ?we?re all in this together.? Our teachers have been so great.?