By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — Students are off enjoying summer vacation but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t happening in and around local schools.
School Facilities Director Tim O’Brien updated the School Committee last week on the various maintenance projects that his staff is busy with this summer in addition to regular summer maintenance of the schools.
O’Brien reported on an air conditioning project at the Doyle Early Childhood Center in order to accommodate a summer program there.
Also at the Doyle, a full-scale kitchen is being installed in order to be able to prepare and serve food at the school. That project is expected to be ready for when school returns to session in September.
A second stall is also being added to a bathroom at the Doyle School.
At the Woodville School, the old playground structure and surface have been dismantled and disposed of, O’Brien said. The site is now ready for the installation of a new surface and structures.
O’Brien said that he had hoped to install the new surface and playground structure at the Walton concurrently with the Woodville project. But due in part to supply chain issues, that likely won’t happen at the Walton until the fall at the earliest. In the meantime, they will make sure that the existing structure is safe.
A new outdoor walk-in freezer is being installed at the Woodville for use by both the Woodville and the next-door high school for storage of food purchased in bulk.
O’Brien reported that at the Greenwood School, they are looking to provide some floor-to-ceiling dividers in the speech therapy room. The materials have been ordered and the hope is to have them installed before the fall.
In the Greenwood School kitchen, storage areas will be removed and replaced this summer.
At the Galvin Middle School, they are putting together a medically fragile classroom.
At Wakefield Memorial High School, O’Brien reported that he recently hosted a tour for nearly 30 individuals from construction firms interested in the new high school building project. He said that they were given a tour of the building and the exterior lay of the land.
As part of the preliminary work for the high school project, Geotech workers were at the school last week doing soil borings and test pits with help from the Department of Public Works. O’Brien assured the School Committee that none of this work will damage fields or impact the school athletic programs.
O’Brien also reported on the summer help that he’s hired, including some current and former high school students along with college students totaling 12 individuals.
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School Superintendent Doug Lyons recommended the hiring of two new full-time school nurses to fill open positions. Both of the recommended hires had worked as COVID nurses in the district during the pandemic.
Alicia Warner will be the new Greenwood School Nurse and Meg Hoffman was named as the new school nurse at the Dolbeare. The School Committee voted unanimously to approve the appointments.
