CCS, after a summer spruce up, looking mighty fine

CORNWALL — So this is it, if your life revolves around the local school schedule: Summer vacation officially ends this weekend, with Region One  schools set to open on Aug. 31.

Since the weather has been steadily warm all summer, it’s a fair bet that students and teachers will have to deal with some high-temperature “dog days.” But the consolation at Cornwall Consolidated School (CCS) is a newly completed sprucing up.

Summer is not vacation time for school staff, who switch gears to reorganize, reschedule, spring clean and do maintenance that can’t be done while classes are in session. There were numerous high-profile projects done with the $40,000 annually set aside for the school in the town’s five-year capital spending plan.

The first thing that many will notice is the newly paved playground at the west end of the building. The old surface was in pretty bad shape: cracked, crumbling, weathered gray and almost too bumpy for basketball. The new paving, as goes the motto of contractor B. Metcalf, is “smooth as a baby’s bottom.”

That project included a paved path from the primary wing to the playground, along what was already used as a pathway. This will be easier to clear of snow and safer for children, whether they are heading for recess or evacuating in an emergency.

Also new is a phone system to replace one so obsolete that replacement parts were difficult to find. 

Four additional security cameras were installed to improve the scope of views both inside and out. New locks on the front doors are aimed at making the secured entry procedure smoother and more effective.

The second thing students are likely to notice, as they start the school year by coming together in the gym, is the newly shiny floor. That gets refinished to a mirror-like surface every summer, thanks in most recent years to custodian Tom Brown.