School may not be in bad shape

A walk-through at Pearson Middle School with principal Clay Krevolin Tuesday afternoon left a pleasantly surprising impression — that the school may not be in such bad shape as the first day of classes approaches

Yes, there were fluorescent light bulbs stewn about here and there, incomplete bathrooms, paint cans waiting to be hauled away and several empty rooms, but it looks like the lion’s share of the work has been done.

Most people in town know there has been a great deal of work done at the middle school this summer, with asbestos removal, restructuring of grades and renovations being done to bring the school up to code in numerous areas. A years-old federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) complaint was finally resolved, with hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on such things as new door handles, enhanced stair railings and a wheelchair lift for the school stage.

Krevolin noted that numerous classrooms on the school’s third floor are ready for teaching. The old home economics room floor was being retiled, as it is being converted to classroom space. One of the most difficult challenges has been to make room for a new grade coming into the building, as a Board of Education-approved restructuring plan calls for the town’s fifth-grade students to be moved out of the elementary schools and into Pearson.

At first glance, many in town opposed all of the changes happening at once, claiming the restructuring of grades would conflict with the OCR renovations at Pearson and that chaos would erupt at the school. The disagreement ultimately resulted in the resignation of three members of the town’s School Building Committee.

While no one is saying the process has been easy, it appears Pearson is on track to open on time. If there are any bumps in the road, we’ll be sure to hear about them next week as school goes into session Wednesday, Aug. 26.

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