News

School preps for the future

By David Gordon

GREENVILLE — A row of orange cones closes off the entrance to Jo-Ann Morse Courtyard at Scott M. Ellis Elementary School in Greenville. The cones mark the spot where an elevator entrance and lobby will be constructed with funds from an Excel grant from New York State.

The $1.5 million project is designed to permit students with handicaps to get from floor to floor without having to use the stairs and to get from one wing of the school to another without having to go outside.

The plans show a large, tiled vestibule surrounding the elevator and its associated machine room.

The new lobby will connect the cafeteria wing of the school with the front wing and will close off the courtyard, which will still be accessible from inside the building. The glass-enclosed space will, in effect, widen the existing hallway between the cafeteria and the library.

A plaque on the side of the building honoring former school superintendent Jo-Ann Morse will be moved, said Buildings and Grounds Director Robert Schrader. Part of the wall will cover the spot where the plaque is now placed.

The board had a look at floor plans and architectural plans showing the location of the elevator on the second and third floors.

Following a look at the proposed elevator site, the board took a walk through the school buildings to see the work that has been done, or is in progress, using the district’s regular operating funds. Small changes throughout the building will improve food service, a projector in the auditorium, display boards in the Ellis school hallway and ballfields. A joint town-school installation of a new water line is nearly complete, and the board saw the valves and hydrant marking the end of the line on school property.

The next stop after the elevator location was the parking lot, where Transportation Supervisor Karen Morin explained the constraints on bus unloading and parking during construction. Buses will have less turning room, as much of the parking lot will be blocked off while work progresses, she said, but “it may be a little tight, but we have room to turn buses around.”

Control of fuel use is improved this year with a keyed computer system for recording fuel usage. The old system, a mailbox next to the fuel pump with a notebook inside, is still there but will be removed. Instead of signing the book, drivers will use a key to record their fuel usage on a computer. Each user will have a unique key that will identify him or her.

Elementary school principal Peter Mahan pointed out the new bulletin boards on the school corridor walls. They are similar to the wood-framed bulletin boards that date back to the school’s construction in 1932, and though you can tell which are new, they are very similar. Nearly all the bulletin boards sport attractive displays.

As the board left the building, Schrader pointed out the areas of the parking lot where potholes have been filled. A path between the elementary school and the middle school/high school complex is gradually being paved, with a little more blacktop replacing the gravel each year.

New drains under the baselines will improve the surface of the practice baseball diamond, explained athletic director and assistant principal Scott Turrin.

The school district is contracting with GreenFiber, a paper recycler, to pick up all waste paper in the district. Instead of paying $17 per pickup for cardboard and carting all other paper to the recycling center, the district is now paid $25 per ton for its paper. Students handle the paper pickup and placement in the recycling dumpsters, and the money raised will go towards student activities, Schrader said.

Three new convection ovens in the food service kitchen in the high school will speed up food preparation, helping to keep up with a growing enrollment. Food service supervisor Paul Ventura had a plate of cookies ready to show the board what the new ovens can produce. Now, if the board can get around to replacing the antique stove that’s adjacent to the ovens …

Plans call for a new LED projection system for the high school auditorium. Technology director Scott Gardiner explained that the projector used to be brought in when needed, and setting it up blocked four seats at the front of the room. The new projection unit will hang from the ceiling and can be controlled from a podium on the stage or from the sound control booth.

Schrader praised his workers, both for the special projects and for the overall cleaning of the school. The job was more difficult than usual, he said, because BOCES used Greenville classrooms for its summer school, and the crew had to work around them.

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