A summer facelift

Schools in the Valley Stream Central High School District are under repair this summer, and officials say that all of the construction — masonry work, electrical upgrades and floor tile replacement — is scheduled to be completed by the start of the school year.

Wayne Loper, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said that all four schools in the district — North, South and Central high schools and Memorial Junior High School — are undergoing structural upgrades. Most were funded by Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning, or EXCEL, a state program that helps districts improve their facilities, and the 2008-09 budget — a total of nearly $1.4 million. Loper said he expects most of the projects to be done by September. “Everything is in progress at the moment,” he said.

At Central, Loper said, the district has used seven contractors for summer construction work. They are installing an air-conditioning system in the Keller Auditorium, which Loper said was funded by a public-approved capital reserve proposition last year. The district is also rebuilding the tennis courts, replacing the drop ceilings on the third floor, installing energy-efficient lights and laying new floor tiles in more than a dozen classrooms. He added that some masonry work is being done to the chimney, on the front steps and to the cornerstone. “With the exception of the auditorium air conditioner, everything should be done by the start of school,” he said. “And that is scheduled to be done by the end of September.”

At North, the district hired three contractors to complete the summer work, Loper said. Fourteen classrooms will have new floor tiles, and energy-efficient lights are being installed throughout the school, he said. Many of the structural upgrades were needed, he explained, because the lights and floors are as old as the building — about 50 years.

At South, the district is upgrading the heating and air-conditioning system and installing energy-efficient lighting throughout the hallways.

Because of the construction, South High was used for the summer school program normally held at Central. School board President Larry Trogel expects summer school to move back to Central next year.

The majority of work at Memorial has been done on the maintenance garage, Loper said, and is being done by four contractors. “The roof needed to be replaced, the oil tank needed to be removed and they are doing some electrical work to the fire alarm,” he said. “All of the maintenance garage work was budgetary appropriations from 2007-08.”

The contract to build a new elevator, Loper said, was awarded at the last board meeting, and work is scheduled to begin in late September and end in December. The elevator is being built to allow people with disabilities access to the district offices on the second floor, without having to walk through the building.

Trogel said there will be an update on all of the construction projects at the Aug. 25 Board of Education meeting.