Dumais: High School Addition Needs at Least Another Month

Delays in the Newtown High School construction project will mean students and staff won't be moving into the new addition for at least another month, Principal Chip Dumais announced.

"There are enough items, and some of them are critical items, that we're not going to be able to move in by September," said Dumais who first announced the news on his school blog.

Construction was expected to have been substantially completed in time for the start of school, but because of delays, the new addition won't be ready until probably October, he said.

Items, such as installing tile in the new lobby areas and equipment in the new kitchen and scheduling an elevator inspection, still need to get done and will take some time, Dumais said.

That means that when students return to the high school for the start of classes next month, they will be limited to the old areas of the building, in addition to losing access to the gymnasium and the rooms underneath used for health classes. The gymnasium wasn't scheduled to be ready until November but school officials said they had hoped to use classrooms in the new addition to compensate.

"This is going to require a lot of flexibility," Dumais said.

Additionally while school officials had planned for a second cafeteria in the new space, allowing them to institute a three-lunch period, the delay means lunch will remain restricted to one cafeteria and the old four-lunch period set-up, he said.

The workers the food service provider, Chartwells had hired to staff the second cafeteria, also would have to remain on the payroll during the interim.

In general, students shouldn't see disruption to their classes more than what was in place toward the end of last school year, Dumais said.

"Student schedules won't change, it'll be more of an inconvenience for staff more than anything," he said.

Dumais said while teachers had packed up classroom materials and desks in anticipation of moving to the new addition, they will now have to open their packed boxes and retrieve items they will need for classes during the interim period.

Also, when the new addition is completed and ready for move in, teachers and staff will have to be prepared to move right away, Dumais said.

"We'll have to figure how to do that," he said. "We will move in overnight – there's really no other way."