No Summer Vacation for School Contruction

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 8/22/02)

Early September heat won’t bother students and teachers in third-floor classrooms of Corpus Christi School in Falls Church, no matter how long summer lingers.

On a recent tour of school renovations, Corpus Christi bookkeeper Susan Templeton pointed out ceiling panels pulled down for the installation of new air conditioning ducts, part of St. Anthony Parish’s Project 2000: the Millennium Fund.

Construction during the summer added three meeting rooms, a band room and new office space for Principal George Chiplock Jr., and administrative staff. Workmen also replaced large, old classroom windows with more energy efficient double-pane windows and installed a new sprinkler system.

A newly installed elevator will make carrying supplies to upper floors much easier, Templeton said.

Templeton eagerly awaits the return of Corpus Christi’s science teachers to new science lab tables. When a Manassas Baptist congregation bought an old school to convert to a Sunday school, they had no need for the good-as-new lab tables, which were offered free to the first takers.

Project 2000’s second phase includes construction of a gym, to begin soon after school opens, with completion targeted for January 2003, Chiplock said.

Bishop O’Connell High School Principal Al Burch’s dreams for the Arlington school are being realized in the first of four renovation and building phases.

John Gutter, assistant principal for student life, pointed out new science labs and academic support rooms on a tour of the school. At last, the annex to Sister Joanne’s library is under construction, too.

Gutter said the "vast majority" of work will be completed by the start of school.

At the front entrance, returning students will immediately see where bulldozers have created 15 more parking spaces for faculty and 86 for students.

Inside, they will find a freshly painted cafeteria with newly tiled floor and bright new ceiling lights. More efficient heat pumps will cool or warm students while they eat lunch or hold meetings in the cafeteria.

The bookstore has been relocated and new office space for the activities director and student council has been added.

A second construction phase, expected to begin in September, will include a two-story addition to the back of the auditorium with a band room on one floor and art classrooms, a photo lab and kiln room on the other. The new setup provides direct access from the band room to the stage.

General purpose classrooms will be added and the old band room will be converted to a weight room.

"O’Connell is a great place," Gutter said, "And the renovations will enhance it."

A Marine with 18 years of service to O’Connell, Gutter says he won’t leave before the job is done.

Last spring, construction of Queen of Apostles’ new parish center, St. Joseph Hall, in Alexandria, began right outside a second-grade classroom. A clever teacher dealt with the distraction by rewarding students who completed their work with "window time" to watch the busy bricklayers and bulldozers.

In the July heat, men carried red bricks to finish St. Joseph Hall’s entranceway. About 750 donor bricks bearing names of contributors to the parish center were set in the walkway.

St. Joseph Hall includes a new gymnasium, meeting rooms, mini kitchen and offices for the physical education teacher and director of religious education. A statue of St. Joseph will be placed in a prominent niche in the entranceway. Trophies will soon fill a nearby case.

The parish center will free up storage space in the already existing school building. From now on, the physical education/computer teacher won’t have to store balls and sports equipment in the computer lab.

Principal Mary West praised Miller Brothers Construction, especially superintendent

Chris Dickens, for running a smooth, considerate operation around school children. Workers even waited for a mourning dove’s babies to hatch in a nest over an unfinished outdoor light fixture.

Four air conditioning units chilled the gym to 63 degrees as workers made adjustments to six basketball hoops. Dickens explained that moisture had to be removed from the gym before the wood floor was put down. Once the flooring is in place, an eagle, the school’s symbol, will be painted in the center.

West pointed out that the addition of the gym means Queen of Apostles will no longer have to rent space for games and practice.

The school’s literature teacher in particular is very pleased with the new stage at one end of the gym, West said. It will be perfect for the Shakespeare Festival and school productions.

Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde will dedicate the new parish center at a Mass on Sept. 28.

St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Arlington plans to break ground for their new parish center in September. As at Queen of Apostles, the building will include a gym and meeting rooms.

Under relentless summer sun, Miller Brothers Construction workers poured concrete for curbs and an entranceway to St. William of York School in Stafford. By the planned Aug. 26 dedication, 24,000 square feet will have been added to the school in the form of a gymnasium, school offices, religious education offices, nine classrooms, a science lab and new parking lots. In addition, "Ninety percent of the existing [school] building will be rehabilitated," Pastor Father Michael Duesterhaus said.

"The additional space will help the parish co-locate the school and CCD," Father Duesterhaus said. St. William’s CCD program serves 600 children in grades one to six, many of whom are "bused in after school," he said.

From a balcony, Father Duesterhaus surveyed progress on the new gym below. Parish youth ministry will use the balcony as meeting space.

Wood paneling and an old stage have been removed and fresh paint applied to the existing parish multipurpose room, which will be known as Holy Family Parish Center.

Renovations that began in spring to Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax with new windows and tile floors continued through the summer.

The school’s entire plumbing system is being replaced and bathrooms renovated — in an effort to maintain the "classic building," Principal Philip Robey said.

Paul VI was formerly Fairfax High School, whose alumni often stop by to visit their old school, Robey said.

As July came to a close, work continued in earnest around the school. Bricklayer Jorge Lopez smoothed mortar around bricks of a bathroom wall. Stephen Scalf measured ceiling pipes. Charles Kent shoveled dirt from an outside trench where plumbing pipe was being laid.

New red blinds added to the school chapel create a sense of serenity. A statue of St. Maximilian Kolbe has been added. The statue overlooked stained glass windows — gifts from PVI Classes of 2000, 2001 and 2002 — waiting to be installed in the chapel.

At parish elementary schools and diocesan high schools alike, there was no vacation this summer from creating comfortable learning and recreation environments for area Catholic students. 

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