Education, Construction Moving Along

The Deer Park Junior High parking lot looks like a refrigerator farm and the school’s bare concrete halls are as stark as a prison.

Educating in the midst of construction is surprisingly easy. “Until the jackhammers start going, you don’t even notice,” said eighth-grader Matt Keogh.

The Deer Park School District is in the midst of its most expensive construction spree. While students are pounding the books, more than $10.3 million in improvements are being pounded into the walls of four schools.

Half the money comes from a school bond issue passed earlier this year. It was the first construction bond passed in 18 years, according to school district budget manager Wayne Leonard.

The other half comes from the state.

Deer Park Junior High and Arcadia Elementary are getting improvements worth $9.5 million.

“We’re going to be so uptown when we’re done,” said Arcadia principal Bonnie Bantas.

Deer Park High School and Deer Park Elementary were rewired for Internet access and a parking lot was paved at the elementary school.

Construction at Deer Park Junior High didn’t start until late summer. When completed next spring, the school will have a dozen new or remodeled classrooms, an efficient heating system and a showcase auditorium.

“This is a 1958 building that puts more heat out than it keeps in,” said principal Karen Reed. “We had to do this.”

But change is not easy. Lockers have been torn out, so students have to carry books in backpacks. The kitchen is in the parking lot, so lunch is always cold. No books can be checked out of the library. The heating system is next to the kitchen, so space heaters are plugged in each morning to warm the classrooms.

“This will be worth it in the end,” librarian Judy Porter said.

Reed’s office will be in the cafeteria for a month. “I’ll be nearer the coffee and cookies,” she said.

At Arcadia Elementary, a $4 million remodel is almost done, but three classes are still meeting in the gym. Dave Deveraux’s fifth-grade class is separated from Barb Planio’s third-grade class by folding walls.

“I tell them if one starts singing, ‘Do you hear what I hear,’ the other will join in from the other side of the wall,” said Bantas.

The Arcadia office staff has moved eight times in the last three months. They’ll have to move twice more before construction is done, said Bantas.

“We’re not getting too comfortable here,” she said.

Gone is the carpet so badly worn that the black rubber cushioning showed. In are nail guns and visquene.

“I like coming here each day and seeing new things,” said 11-year-old Cliff Morgan.

, DataTimes