October 10, 2015

Fall Break is just about over, and thankfully, the weather cooperated. "Little" projects were completed, but I think they were huge in the overall impact.

Here are some photos to explain what I mean:

The grass is growing nicely in the area in front of the new classroom building. Hopefully, we'll be able to use the area soon for recess and school-wide assemblies. We'll have to wait for the grass to grow evenly; right now, the area that was seeded is growing more quickly than the other area.

Last week, I mentioned the concrete pump and how it went over the library media/student center to work on the windows. VP Arikawa took some photos of the process since I did not have any. 

Here's a great photo that shows the whole view of the building and the pump. The process never fails to amaze me!

We had some extra tiles and asked if we could accentuate the blank wall outside the restrooms in the new building. The top floor has the green tiles. 

I came back to work after a 2-day workshop and was absolutely astounded at the floors in the new building. Our custodians did a phenomenal job of cleaning the floors in the learning hub and then applying several coats of wax. Originally, we were told that the rubber tiles would be easy to clean, but the flooring company didn't take into consideration the Wahiawa red dirt. Now we know that we need to apply wax when the floors are installed in the library media/student center.

This is a new sidewalk in the area by the new classroom building by J-building.

We had a week for Fall Break, so the custodians were only able to clean the learning hubs on the first and second floor and these classrooms.  We're emphasizing Hale Kula Pride: Take care of yourself. Take care of others. Take care of our school.

The interior stairs look great, don't they? Wow! So much nicer now! 

The masons continue to work on the covered play court. They were also working on the stairs that will go from the play court to J-building.

Window frames have been installed on part of the bottom floor.

October 3, 2015

This was the last week of the quarter, and we have a short Fall Break. 

Once the workers finish the roof of the library media/student center and get it water-tight, they can begin to work on closing the walls on the interior. Right now, we can see where the walls will go, but until they are up, the building still seems far from completion. 

For the next week and a half, the contractors and custodians will be really busy trying to complete tasks that cannot be done when students are around. Hopefully, they will get lots accomplished!

Roofers are working on the roof of the library media/student center
The left side of the photo is the library; it has a high ceiling so there are no rooms over the library. The tech center on the second floor (where the worker on the right is standing) will have windows that overlook the library.

The huge concrete pump was back on campus on Friday. In the morning, they were working on the covered play court.

In the afternoon, the concrete pump moved to the front of the school. This worker was using the remote control to guide the pump as it worked on the library media/student center. 

He was guiding the pump up and over the building to the back where workers were pouring concrete for the clerestory windows.   

September 27, 2015

We have one more week of school before Fall Break, and I know our contractors are hoping for great weather. Break times are opportunities to catch up on work that would be difficult when school is in session.

This past week, we were able to tour the interior of the library media/student center. The metal pan deck for the roof is just about completed (the weather delayed the completion), and the metal frames for the interior of the building are being installed. Air conditioning ducts are in place in the library portion of the building.

Work continues on classroom J5 as well as the covered play court.

The roofers are working on installing the metal pan decks for the roof of the library media/student center. Once this is done, they will install several layers of insulation.

This is what the metal roofs look like from inside the building.

Those cylindrical tubes are for the air conditioning in the library. 

This is the hallway in the student center. The speech pathologists will work in the large room on the right. On the left are several office spaces for the counselors and Behavior Health Therapist. 

Workers are checking to make sure the metal pan decks were installed correctly.

We walked through this room as well. The electricians were still installing the outlets, and there is still much work to be done. Hopefully, we can use this classroom during the school yea.

One sidewalk was already poured for the outdoor play court, but there is still much more that has to be done on this phase of the project.

September 20, 2015

It was a bit noisy this past week with work being done on the metal pan decks on the roof. The sound of pounding and sawing were somewhat distracting, but the work was necessary. The recent bad weather delayed the project a bit, so workers were trying to catch up. Now that the metal pan decks are just about done, the noise should decrease.

This week, some new furniture arrived for the learning hub. These are funky-shaped tables that can be configured in different ways depending on the activity and the number of students in the group. Students can use dry erase markers on the table tops to sketch out ideas, practice their skills, or to outline their ideas. I think we'll find many more uses for those tables!

On Thursday, about a dozen retired Hale Kula staff came on a tour of the school. One of them had seen the blog about the opening of the classroom building and asked if a group could come to visit. It was wonderful to see them; some went on to become administrators and others stayed in the classroom and retired after many years of service. I understand there is a group of retirees from our school who gets together regularly to have lunch and enjoy each other's company. I think that demonstrates the feeling at our school where everyone is part of our Hale Kula `ohana. It was great seeing all of them!

Students were using the new desks in the learning hub of the new classroom building.

The tour group of former Hale Kula staff and the "tour guides"

Most of the metal pan decks are in place for the roof of the library media/student center. Now, workers will begin to place the insulation sheets on top of the metal pan deck.

September 11, 2015

Well, this turned out to be another week with pretty rainy weather. Because Monday was a holiday, we already had one day less for the contractors to work. They did the best they could, but we certainly wish that this humid, rainy weather will pass by next week.

Workers continue working on the inside of the library media/student center, and we haven't been able to check out the interior due to the wet conditions, making it unsafe for us. The special education classroom is looking good, and the windows were installed this week.  Workers poured concrete in the covered play court on Tuesday; I'm not sure if they were pouring the columns or some other part of the building.

Not too many photos this week; hopefully, we'll be able to take more next week.

Concrete-pouring on Tuesday - thank goodness the morning was beautiful!

This is what the new special education classroom looked like on Tuesday . . . 

. . . and on Thursday, the windows were in place on the back of the classroom.

Work continues on the covered play court.  I was speaking with Mr. Bevacqua, the PE teacher, and we both agreed that this would be such a wonderful place for the whole school to assemble.  We can't wait for this building to be finished!

September 6, 2015

This week was a little better than last week for our construction crew. It's true that we were still under hurricane watch, but for the most part, the workers were able to make progress prior to any rains in the afternoon. Let's hope the weather improves so we can catch up on the lost days due to the torrential rains that made work impossible.

The view of the Student Center side of the building from the second floor of the classroom building - work continues on the interior.

The roof of the special education classroom is done, and work continues on the inside.  We would love for that room to be ready by the second quarter; we are keeping our fingers crossed.

The view of the covered play court from J-building

. . . the view from the side facing the cafeteria

. . . and the side facing Waianae Avenue
It is still hard to visualize what the building will look like once it's completed, but I can say that it will be wonderful to have a place for PE and for assemblies and not worry about the rain.

The landscapers had their work cut out for them; the heavy rains caused the weeds to grow!

After a lot of pulling out weeds, weed-whacking, and lawn mowing, the grass looked much better!  We are all waiting for the grass to grow out so students have another place to play at recess time.

One last photo that was sent to me by a parent this morning. Yes, those are pigs on our campus. We chased them away a few weeks ago, but they were back this morning.  I guess we'll have to assess the damage when we go back to school on Tuesday.  Hopefully, they'll be gone by then. I'm not sure what the Army can do to get rid of those pigs since they appear to be living in the gulch.  Any ideas?

August 29, 2015

This was a dreary week, and not much work could get accomplished with the heavy rains we had. Workers tried . . . some days this week, the weather started off beautifully and by noon, the downpours started. It's been a rough hurricane season; we dodged the first two, but it looks like we're not going to get a pass this year.

So much rain!! 

The area between the cafeteria and building I was flooding!

It looked promising on the day I took this photo, but by the afternoon, we had a downpour again.  Notice that the grass in front of the new classroom building is starting to grow. The problem is that with these heavy rains, the weeds are growing profusely as well! The landscapers have lots of work to do when they return, hopefully on Monday.

The garden between A and B building was also flooded by the heavy rains.  Mr. Gomez planted some seeds in his planters on Friday.  Let's hope they are able to germinate and grow!