Elbow Grease, Long Hours At Meadowbrook As First Day Looms

It may not look perfect, but Meadowbrook Farms School should be ready to open Wednesday, Aug. 29, for the first day of school, said Principal Neil Marcaccio Monday.

Nearly everyone who works at the elementary school showed up for work Sunday, Aug. 26, the first chance they had to put their school back together after a summer of abestos abatement and construction to resolve decades-old moisture problems.

"The plan is to be open Wednesday morning on schedule," Marcaccio said. "I feel very good about the progress that's been made based on where we started Sunday morning. The change has exceeded my expections."

Even so, he acknowledged there's much to be done and a couple of late nights ahead. He said the staff has been great. "They've exceeded all reasonable expectations with time and energy and being creative about getting the work done," he said. "There's been a tremendous amount of collaboration."

Marcaccio, who was hired on as the principal in June, spent his first two months on the job in a remote office at Cole. Just like everyone else, he only got to move into his office Sunday.

Bob Coutu (a.k.a. Mr. Bob), a custodian at Meadowbrook, returned to work at in the building nine days earlier.

"If you saw what I came into ... there weren't even doors hung, counters and sinks weren't even in," he said. "Now, everything is in pretty good shape."

Though, in truth, all the sinks weren't quite in by Monday. Five or six were still sitting in the hallway, with a worker saying they would be all be in Tuesday.

Helen DePasquale, who teaches half-day kindergarten at Meadowbrook, said Monday she'd put in 12 and a half hours Sunday. She said she was lucky because she has a colleague to help – Mary Francis works as a paraprofessional in the classroom.

"We have all been diligently trying to make this happen," said DePasquale. About the construction, she said, "We're definitely in a better place. It's just a tremendous amount of work."

First grade teacher Judy DeGroot was far enough along Monday (after putting in 11 hours Sunday) to be fixing name plates to desks. "It's stressful because it's last minute," she said, "but it looks good. I'm feeling good. It's going to happen."

And, she said, the kids won't notice if there's a wall hanging missing on Wednesday. "I'm the only one who'll notice."

Pam Mateer, another first grade teacher, said what's hard for her was the lack of storage because cabinets haven't been installed. And her's is one of the sinks still to be installed. But it's not all bad, she said.

"The flip side is everything's new and clean."

She and Bob Coutu praised the movers. Teachers boxed up everything last June and it was taken to a storage facility in Exeter until last week. Mateer said the movers were "amazing."

"It was well worth whatever that cost," she said.