By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 1/22/04)

Students and staff at Our Lady of Good Counsel School have had a lot to deal with the last year and a half. What was once the main entrance to the school now looks like an entrance to a mine shaft. Temporary lights are strung across the ceiling in parts of the school, looking like forgotten Christmas decorations.

Construction began in October 2002 for an $8.2 million expansion of the school and parish, and it’s not over yet.

During construction, the students and staff have had to adapt to ever-changing conditions. The school doesn’t have a public address system, and internal email has, at times, been intermittent. The whole middle section of the school where the administrative offices used to be has basically been gutted, making it difficult at times to travel from one end of the school to the other.

The administration offices have been relocated to what will become the art room. Their desks are scatted across one side of the room. Principal Austin Poole described it as being very much like a family room. If someone has a phone call or visitor, it is easy to announce it by calling across the room.

Gas, water and electricity are provided by Fairfax County, Vienna and Falls Church, so it has taken some organization to make sure all three will work.

When the winter months first arrived, the heating system at the school wasn’t functioning. Temporary heaters were set up for a time, but, thankfully, the school is now heated. "Teachers have had to adapt and they have done so effectively," said Poole. "My poor computer teacher is teaching computers without any computers."

Because the school’s computers are all in storage, students have to learn about computers in a less hands-on manner than in previous years. Students are learning keyboarding skills on paper keyboards and completing many more assignments through homework. Mary Briody, one of the computer teachers, said, "We’re compensating."

Computer classes now consist of one laptop hooked up to a projector. Classes have switched gears so that students are learning a lot more about hardware and concepts. While younger students are making construction paper floppy disks, older students are completing research projects on computer-related topics, such as virtual reality and the history of computers. This year there is more of an emphasis on instruction, "learning by seeing rather than doing," Briody said. "It’s not as much fun for them, but they’re still learning."

The art and music teachers are also essentially homeless. They share closet space and part of the old gymnasium and must cart supplies around the school.

Because the gym is becoming a library, the construction crew is eager to gut it and get the work done. Students can still use half the gym, but they are surrounded by signs of change. A doorway is situated, almost floating, halfway up one wall, showing where a second floor will eventually be built. Behind the art supplies, there is a hole in the floor where a crawl-space about one foot high is visible for workers to crawl through and dig out dirt with hand shovels to install duct work under the floor.

Down the hall, three kindergarten classrooms have been constructed out of modular walls in what was a multi-purpose room.

Parents have had their share of headaches as well. Transporting their children to and from school has become a challenge. Once an organized system is established, routes may change. Recently, parents faced a six-foot hole in the driveway entrance they usually use.

When construction is finished, the school will have a new gymnasium, computer room, music and art rooms, administrative offices, library and media center, small classroom space, teachers’ lounge, kindergarten classrooms and counselors offices. They are also installing elevators near the new library.

At the same time, the church is expanding the narthex, building a two-story parish hall and a small chapel. The roads and parking lots around the church and school have been reconfigured.

"We are fortunate on the school side that they began there first and will be under roof shortly," Poole said. Next to the church is a giant hole, now resembling a sunken ice skating rink, where the parish center will be. Due to the large amount of rain last year, construction was delayed on the parish center because the soil was too saturated. While the rainy weather has passed, puddles of ice now cover the floors of cement cubicles that will become classrooms.

Oblate Father John O’Neill, pastor, said the best estimate they currently have for construction to be complete, as long as the weather cooperates, is fall 2004.