TALKING WALLS AND SHINING HALLS
Interactive technology, open spaces major part of Bethel’s newly renovated elementary schools
BETHEL — In the newly renovated first-grade classrooms at Rockwell Elementary School, desks can be easily moved for students to collaborate.
Teachers may use interactive whiteboard space to assist with lessons.
“The walls talk,” Principal Trisha Soucy said in a recent virtual tour of the space.
The $65.8 million renovations to Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools are mostly complete and about $878,000 under budget.
“It just looks beautiful,” Superintendent Christine Carver said last week.
With natural light, more office and collaboration space, and other features, the buildings are major step up from before the renovations began last year, she said. Rockwell was built in 1971, while Johnson was built in 1980.
“Our teachers are really thrilled with their new spaces, with the technology,” Carver said. “It’s just stuff they’ve never had before, and the students just love their new learning environment. It’s so cheerful and sunny.”
The gyms at both schools are the biggest items to be completed, with some minor items and outside work also on the to-do list.
Carver hopes crews will be finished by end of January or early February, with the possible exception of the soccer fields at Johnson to be wrapped up in the spring.
A more ‘inviting’ environment
Students and teachers have been in the buildings since September, but the community got their first look recently when Carver shared video tours of the spaces.
She described the “state of the art” chorus room at Johnson and nearby ensemble and sound-proof practice spaces. An amphitheater at Johnson will allow for indoor and outdoor performances.
The schools allow for more natural light and feature wooden ceilings.
“It really does make it aesthetically look inviting and pleasing to the students,” Caver said in the
video.
Many areas, such as the makerspace in the media center, are unable to be used due to the coronavirus pandemic, she said. But that makerspace is meant to be where students may create an invention.
“It’s really meant to be an area to direct the creativity in our students,” Carver said.
At Rockwell, all the kindergarten classrooms have bathrooms and cubbies, with the other students having lockers in the hallways. This keeps clutter out of the classroom and gives students a “moving break,” Soucy said.
“The kids love them,” she said.
At Rockwell, English learners have their own space, rather than the corner of the math instructional suite. The school also has a “literacy suite,” instead of storing books in the custodial closet.
Under budget, but a little behind
The coronavirus pandemic slowed delivery of some materials, such as steel, and affected staffing due to exposures at other sites, Carver said.
But it also helped workers to catch up on the schedule because they could access more parts of the buildings when students were at home, she said.
“They are still a little bit off schedule, but it was a little bit more substantial going into the spring,” Carver said.
By the time students returned in the fall, all the occupied spaces, such as classrooms were completed. Places like the gym and cafeteria were unfinished but unable to be used due to the pandemic.
“We were able to really create a barrier between the construction and the students as they finished up those final spaces,” Carver said.
A state grant covers 45 percent of eligible costs of the renovations.
The project is overall under budget, but Rockwell is over estimated costs due to hazardous materials in the building being worse and more costly to remediate than expected, Carver said. These environmental issues were one of the biggest challenges from the project, she said.
But Johnson is far under budget because environmental issues were much less than anticipated, she said. Technology, furniture, fixtures and equipment were also under budget.
Johnson still has almost $1.8 million in contingency, but Rockwell is over by $313,000, according to the Public Site and Building Commission’s meeting minutes.
Since there was money in the Johnson budget, the commission approved converting the soccer fields to regulation size.
“It’s a great asset for the town,” Carver said.