By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — Noses pressed to the glass of their classroom windows, preschool students at Windermere School watch as big trucks go up and down Sanborn Road.
The teachers say the trucks are hauling materials to the new Lakeside Junior High School.
Situated astride the new Lakeside High School, the new brick building is under construction, and everyone is anxious to see the new classrooms, kitchen and hallways, said Charles Tarantina, supervisor of the preschool at Windermere.
“The principals are going to get a tour soon,” Tarantina said.
Lakeside Junior High is the second of many new schools being built in the Ashtabula Area City School District, and there’s a lot to see since last spring, said Ben Pintabona, senior project manager with R.P. Carbone Co.
“The junior high roof is done, and the grid work for the ceilings (is) done,” he said at Wednesday night’s school board work session. “The floor tile was delivered this past week.”
Workers already put the tile down in the school’s kitchen, he said.
“Next week, if the weather is good, we will start on the exterior work again,” Pintabona said. “I am very, very pleased with the quality of work on the junior high.”
In another month or so, crews will level land and plant grass, he said.
On Wade Avenue, where the school district plans to build five elementary schools in a campus-style setting, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is expected to wrap up its evaluation of the property, Pintabona said.
As for the district’s old buildings, Pintabona said the asbestos removal at Chestnut Elementary School in Ashtabula is now complete.
Tarantina said Windermere preschool will move to the Thomas Jefferson Elementary building when the new schools open on Wade Avenue. The schools are expected to open in fall 2011.
