February 25, 2014

The weather is cooperating, and we are definitely seeing progress on our buildings!  Here are some photos which show what is happening with our construction project.

Late last week, workers poured the final cement for the classroom building padding.  The building will be large with 8 classrooms, a special education classroom, a tech lab, a teacher's workroom, and 2 flex classrooms.  

Workers are building the walls and other infrastructure on the inside of the administration building. 

Another view of the administration building; I think I need to take a panoramic view of the front of the building. 

Early last week, there were huge piles of dirt in this area next to my office.  Now to plant grass so it won't be so dusty!

If you look closely, you can see that the walls of the classroom building are going up.  This will be a two-story building so it will take longer to be completed than the administration building.   The classrooms are intended to foster 21st century skills -- communication, collaboration, thinking critically, and creating.  

February 16, 2014

I've been negligent about updating this blog with new posts, but there aren't too many visible changes since the last post.  That doesn't mean nothing's getting done. We are hearing loud noises coming from the administration building as workers drop the panels for the roofing.  Metal on metal means reverberating noise.

Sidewalk for the custodial building is completed; however, they will probably extend that sidewalk instead of planting grass there.  

This is the area right beside my office.  They actually completed most of the work this past week.

Pouring cement over the pipes then covering the whole trench with the dirt.  The work should be completed soon!

A Week's Progress

Two days of rain meant workers had a couple of days of work to catch up on.  Let's hope these weather-stoppages are few and far between.

We got back the hallway to the cafeteria this week which was so timely.  On Wednesday evening, over 400 students and family members attended our first Read Aloud Program session, and I'm not sure how we would have managed serving the pizza dinner if that area was still closed.  The line - which was 5-6 people wide -- went from the cafeteria to the library! Thank goodness, the hallway had just been opened last Friday!

There were a lot of families present for our Read Aloud Program. on Wednesday evening.

Thank goodness the contractors had opened this area leading up the cafeteria.  The whole sidewalk was filled with families waiting to pick up their pizza.






The contractors removed the black barrier in front of the area in front of the Administration Building, and after school, one of our students exclaimed, "WOW!  Lots of progress!"  The contractors are working on the roof as well as the inside of the building  That big area will be the office lobby.  To the left (facing the building) is the Parent/Volunteer/Transition Center (although we'll be temporarily using that room as a technology lab until the classroom building is ready) and to the right is the Health Room. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates :-)

January 26. 2014

Steady progress is being made on the administration and classroom buildings. Infrastructure work continues with more digging for the underground work on the electrical and data systems.  The walkway to the cafeteria will soon be opened, and the area between the office and A-building will be blocked off shortly. As always, we appreciate everyone's flexibility as the workers do their best to minimize the impact on our students and staff!

On Wednesday, workers put up the orange fencing in the area right outside my office.  On Thursday, they had already dropped in one of the concrete boxes.  They seem to be working more quickly than at the beginning of the project!  Five boxes will be housed in that area.  

The contractors are doing their best to save the avocado tree which produces the best fruit for guacamole!

The top photo shows a close-up of the roof for the administration building.  The poor classes in A-building are enduring extra noise during this process of putting the structural beams and panels in place.  The bottom photo is a panoramic view of the building from across the street.  In just a few months, we will be moving in!

January 18, 2014 - Wow!

I had a training on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, and when I returned to school on Thursday, I was amazed at the progress on our administration building!  We can now see the roof line! When I looked at the architect's rendering and the roofless building, I couldn't quite envision how the roof would come together.

On Thursday, we selected the furniture for our administration building.(No, they weren't from some fancy furniture store; we stuck to the DOE price list.) This task made me realize that the building will be ready for occupancy in a few short months!

Here are a few photos though they don't really allow you to see all the work completed by Structural Steeling this past week.

I was trying to capture different views of the building, hoping the roofline would be visible, but I wasn't very successful.  I was not far enough, I guess, when I was taking the photos.  I'll try again next week!

These were taken from inside the administration building. Can you see the way 

the roof is slanted?  The open spaces in the photo on the right will be windows for natural lighting.

January 10, 2014

This was a busy week of progress for our construction project!  Work for the electrical system continues; just when I think they're done, they start digging another trench!  I guess this is all part of the process of connecting all the buildings -- new and old -- on one system.

The structural beams were delivered and are being installed, and there was a cement pour for more of the footings for the classroom building.  We've been in discussion with Oceanic and the Department of Education about the conduits for the data.  Oh, and we got our front sidewalk back :-)

These were photos from the back of the school where they're working on the 10-classroom building.  Since this will be a 2-story building and work started a little later than the administration building, it will take longer to complete.  

These photos show the structural beams being delivered and then placed on the administration building.  I should have taken a photo of the workers standing on the beam to lock it in place.  Amazing process.  Our roof line will be unique, so these guys have an important job to do.  By the way, do you notice the pattern of the bricks in the picture on the bottom left?  This is part of the architectural design.  From what the workers told me, they could have finished the job much more quickly except that they had to follow the design pattern on the blueprint. We are fortunate to have a creative team working with us!  

January 3, 2014

The heavy rains the past couple of days ruined our plans for the week, but if the weather is nice this weekend, we should be back on track. The trench in the back of the school is completed  and ready for the data lines to be connected closer to the summer. (below left)  The trench in the front of the school is almost done, but workers could not complete the final step of pouring cement.  The classroom building is progressing; one set of footings is done and workers will be pouring the next set of footings sometime in the coming week, weather permitting.  (below right) Sometime in the next couple of weeks, workers will put in the steel beams for the roofing on our administration building.

Teachers return to school on Monday, and students return on Wednesday.  Happy New Year, everyone!