Summer Construction Activity

The pace of activity on the middle and high school construction project has accelerated in order to take full advantage of an empty building during the summer months. Click here for a description of the work that is taking place.(Posted 7/12/2007)

Auditorium Demolition Preparations Continue
The process of abating the asbestos-containing material from the high school auditorium wing is nearing completion.  Daily testing by the independent company that is monitoring the project shows no evidence that the air quality in that area, which is sealed off and restricted to trained asbestos workers, has been affected in any way by the asbestos removal activities.  In addition, the district has tested the air quality in various areas throughout the school building.  This testing is above and beyond what is required under government regulations and the test that was used is an even more stringent test than was required for the auditorium area.  These results also came in significantly below the threshold established by the government.  Click here for additional information on asbestos safety.

Washington Irving Construction Project Update
After insisting upon three rounds of bidding by contractors in order to ensure the lowest possible bids on the Sleepy Hollow Middle/High School project, the Board of Education awarded the bids necessary to move the project forward.  Since the total for all of the bids still ended up exceeding the budget for the Sleepy Hollow project, the decision was made to reduce the budget for the Washington Irving project by the amount necessary to keep costs in line with the overall budget approved by the voters.  With the Sleepy Hollow project moving forward as planned, the district's attention will now turn to revising the scope of work at Washington Irving in a manner designed to capitalize on the extra space that will be available when the 6th grade moves to the middle school.  The process will focus on achieving the two central goals for that building:  increasing the size of the regular classrooms and making improvements that will benefit the library, art, and music programs.  Click here to view a full report presented to the Board of Education on March 1.  (Posted 3/23/2007)

Ground Breaking at Sleepy Hollow
Within days of our July 11 Ground Breaking ceremony heavy equipment appeared on our high school campus and began breaking ground in serious fashion.  The extensive earth moving work across the full length of the hillside in front of the high school has led to all kinds of public speculation about its purpose.  Here’s the story … The first responsibility we have under state Department of Environmental Conservation regulations is to create sufficient storm water retention capacity to address the volume of rain water runoff that can be generated by the roofs and parking areas on our campus.  Consequently, a storm water retention basin is being constructed across the bottom of our hill to accommodate water runoff from our school facilities.

Once the retention basin is completed, the contractor will turn his attention to excavating the area in front of the high school in preparation for construction of the new three-story classroom addition that will extend across the entire west wing of the high school.  Since the driveway area in front of the high school is now a construction zone, it has been closed off to through traffic.  A turn-around area for car traffic has been created above the Broadway entrance and in the north parking area of the high school.  New parking space is being created on the site of the “shed field” next to our football field.  Interior modifications of the existing west wing classrooms will take place this summer and demolition of the existing auditorium/music wing is also scheduled to begin before the end of the summer.  A special newsletter providing more details will be mailed out to community residents in August.  Click here to view photo gallery. (Posted 7/21/2006)

Click here to view photo gallery

Demolition of existing fins at the West Wing

Erecting of formwork and installation of steel reinforcement for footings at West Wing

Installation of rammed aggregate Geo-piers at proposed auditorium