Thursday, July 29, 2010

A New Look for W.T.Chipman

One of our readers asked for a little more information on remodeling taking place in the schools this summer. I promised to provide that information in this space. Here’s what’s happening at W.T.Chipman Middle School.

As soon as the children and teachers were out of the building in June, a specially trained crew moved in to remove asbestos tiles in selected areas of the school. Many of our old buildings have asbestos floor tiles. They present no danger to staff or students as they are, but we’ve made it a policy to systematically remove those old tiles when we are remodeling sections of the building. These spaces, which include the cafeteria, are getting new floor tiles in a bright, clean blue and white pattern.

Old cabinets and storage units have been removed from the consumer science room, art room and band room. Those rooms will get new cabinets and countertops and in most cases new tile and paint. The consumer science room will get new appliances.

The library will get a face lift with new paint, carpet and furniture.

All hallway walls will have a new, textured, damage-resistant panel installed in two-lovely shades of blue along the lower half of the wall. The rest of the wall gets fresh paint and a contrasting blue stripe.

Old lockers have been torn out and are being replaced with new lockers – also in two shades of blue. They will have built-in locks and there will be more than enough lockers for each student to have his or her own private storage. The lockers should be big enough to hold a student backpack and winter coat.

The cafeteria will get a new exterior finish to match much of the metal siding that has been used in other remodeling of late. The parking lots have had a few inches of ancient black-top milled off. They will be paved and painted. The old tennis courts by the gym, that have been used for parking over the years, have been torn out and that area will be repaved as well.

A canopy will be installed at the main entrance to provide shelter for students who may arrive before the building is open or who may need to wait for a ride after a school activity.

We still await bids on a green house – with planned use by students from both Chipman at South; as well as an outdoor seating area next to the cafeteria.

All of this work, which was funded by a voter supported referendum in 2006, is expected to be complete within the next few weeks - just in time for the teachers to arrive. These are going to be some beautiful improvements on an old school that has always looked a little thread-bare. We think when you see it you’ll agree.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Summer Work

The other day, while getting a haircut, I was asked if I worked in the summer. I used to get a little annoyed when people would ask me that.

Eventually I came to understand that although everyone has gone to school, their experiences generally have been limited to those that fall roughly between Labor Day and Memorial Day. Seems like they all assume that we all go home for the summer like the students and the teachers.

Not so. There is much to be done in the summer that compels school offices and district offices to remain open year round.

At the school level there is summer school; registering new students; organizing special summer learning experiences; interviewing new teachers; ordering supplies; breaking down end of year test results for planning purposes; scheduling; training and all sorts of planning for the coming year.

At the district level there is summer school; busing for some summer students; construction to manage; summer maintenance; vacancies to be posted and applications collected; closing out last year’s budget; opening this year’s budget; training programs; textbooks to order; vendors to be selected; and planning of all kinds for the coming year.

This summer in particular, we have some major remodeling going on at Lake Forest High School and W.T.Chipman Middle. Those places are torn up and the contractors are committed to a deadline to get out of the buildings before Labor Day.

This summer in particular, we have had some major administrator positions to fill. We’ve hired a new Supervisor for Child Nutrition who will manage the breakfast and lunch program. We’ve hired a new assistant principal for Lake Forest High School. We’re in the process of interviewing for a new Principal for East Elementary and a new Supervisor of Transportation.

This summer we had the additional burden of preparing a district plan for Race to the Top a multi-million dollar federal grant won by Delaware that will bring another $1.6 million into Lake Forest over the next four years. As you might imagine, we don’t get that money without a lot of planning, budgeting and paperwork.

So, there is much to do in any school district during the summer. We don’t all go home as soon as the last bus pulls out of the lot. Sure, it is the better time for year round employees to take some vacation. But we are spending each day getting ready for the first full day of school, which this year will be September 7. We are always open for business