Looks like P.W. is officially on the job. It looks like her first task was to arrange this little get together. Although by reading the article she had nothing to say.
from the BCCT:
School renovations on schedule
By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
The school board has planned a special July 29 meeting to award bids for Grandview Elementary School window replacements.
Long gouges are on the walls of the classroom, where ventilators have been ripped out.
Chairs are stacked upside down on tables huddled in the middle of the room, and the detritus of a construction project lies scattered everywhere.
Morrisville Middle/Senior High School may not look pretty now, but extensive renovations are right on schedule to be completed before the start of school Sept. 8.
The 50-year-old school on West Palmer Street is getting all new ventilation systems, a new boiler system, all new windows and some doors, an updated electrical system, asbestos removal and air conditioning in some common areas.
Engineering company Vitetta is handling the $4 million initiative to modernize the building, first opened in 1959 with an addition built in 1974.
"This is the replacement of items that have been in these buildings for many years, mostly original equipment and infrastructure that is 40 to 50 years old," said board President William Hellmann.
During a Thursday afternoon tour, Morrisville School District's facilities director Tim Lastichen, Hellmann, board member William Farrell, Superintendent Elizabeth Yonson, business administrator Paul DeAngelo and new district press officer Pat Wandling observed the work that's been done since before school let out in mid-June.
They stepped carefully over tubing and wires on the floor and observed the ceiling in the library. Several of the ceiling tiles have been removed, exposing metalwork and hanging electrical wires. The library will get a new heating and air-conditioning unit soon.
"Now this is called a hole in the ceiling," said Lastichen. "The duct work is in pretty good shape. The broken and stained ceiling tiles will be replaced. Air vents will stay as is in their areas."
Besides the administration offices, located at the rear of the high school building, the library is the only room that already has air conditioning. The payroll and pupil services departments are getting a brand new rooftop A/C unit.
In the gym, unit ventilators have been taken down, and heat and air conditioning will be put in. In addition, the cafeteria, auditorium and Large Group Instruction room are getting air conditioning for the first time, while other rooms are being prepared to receive air conditioning in the future. Currently, some classrooms use window units to cool the air.
In a hallway, long black and white pipes connecting the new boiler room to the rest of the building snaked along the exposed ceiling and sparks flew from a distant corridor as a worker welded pipe for a new heating system.
The building will get 80 updated ventilators and a new boiler. The two old boilers, located in two separate rooms on different sides of the building, have been removed. The new double boiler system, hot water heaters and all new pumps will supply the entire building after being set up in the older of the two boiler rooms near the cafeteria.
It's going to be an all new mechanical room for the whole building. It's a more efficient way to do it," said Lastichen.
Asbestos abatement started in May and is mostly done, he said.
High on the wall between each classroom and the hall, rectangular holes are being cut out for fire dampers, which would contain any fire started inside the room. The systems are being installed to bring the building up to current fire codes, Lastichen said.
A year ago, new fire suppression systems were put in the kitchen, and plumbing also was brought up to current code requirements.
The deadline to complete all work is Aug. 28.
Morrisville schools are undergoing other changes, too.
Since a furnace explosion in December 2008 put M.R. Reiter Elementary out of commission, the district has been mulling over where to place Reiter children. This past semester, some have been on Grandview Elementary property on Grandview Avenue, while others have been placed in the high school building.
This fall, district children in grades four through eight will share the high school building, but they'll be kept apart from grades nine through 12.
Grades nine through 12 will be called Morrisville High School, while grades four through eight will be the Morrisville Intermediate School.
Seventh- and eighth-graders will be separated from the younger ones in the current middle school wing of the building, said Superintendent Yonson.
Four through six will be in separate corridors, close to administrative offices.
"If anything, I think the older students will be protective of the young ones," said Yonson.
Grandview will house grades pre-K through three.
Yonson has called the new plan, which the board voted for in February, "a better utilization of rooms and teachers."
Renovations are to be done at Grandview Elementary School as well, though a timeline has not been set yet, said Lastichen. A bid is going out for the removal and replacement of windows and doors at the school. The school board has planned a special July 29 meeting to award bids for the window replacements.
The board has no plans yet to work Reiter, on the corner of Harper and Hillcrest Avenues, which also needs major renovations. One option is to sell the building. In January, residents expressed a variety of views for what the district should do with Reiter, but the school board hasn't yet decided.
