Editor’s note: The following press release was provided by the Pelham School District. In addition, the link below provides a district PDF of the work at Hutchinson School, including before pictures and images of blasting, hammering and drilling.

• Hutchinson School rock blasting project

When students and staff return to school next week, they can expect to see some substantial changes to the District’s facilities.

After a busy summer, the site preparation for the new Hutchinson School is substantially complete pending a survey of the property to ensure that the finished product is built to project specifications. Some light residual work, such as trucking rock from the site and erosion control measures may continue over the next few weeks into the beginning of September. We know that this has been a difficult summer for our Hutchinson neighbors, and we appreciate their patience and flexibility. We are pleased to report this phase of the project was completed ahead of schedule and on budget. Out of an abundance of caution and because of the nature of work that occurred this summer, the Hutchinson School facade and structure are being inspected prior to the start of school with the full expectation that the building will be ready to receive students and staff on September 5.

In late July, installation of synthetic turf at the Varsity, A, and B baseball/practice fields and replacement of the tennis courts at the Glover Complex began. This work is moving forward on schedule with removal of the fields’ topsoil and milling of the old tennis courts complete. We are grateful to the entire Pelham Community for their understanding and flexibility in reconfiguring the fall practice schedules while these fields are offline. The District will continue to coordinate with the Pelham Recreation Department in an effort to maximize field availability for all teams and programs. We look forward to the outstanding facilities we will be able to provide to our students and community at the completion of this project.

Our District Facilities team has been hard at work this summer with their usual regimen of painting and cleaning across all of the schools so that the buildings are fresh and ready for students in a couple of weeks. Specifically, the PMHS Main Gym received a much needed facelift and we think students will be happy with the result. In keeping with the District’s 15-year Capital Improvement Plan, the gyms at Colonial and Siwanoy schools are now air conditioned and both received fresh coats of paint as well. Over the course of the next few years, the District plans to continue adding air conditioning to common spaces throughout our schools. In total, the facilities team remarkably cleaned 450,000 square feet of school buildings, 3,400 desks and chairs, 1,500 lockers, 151 classrooms, and seven gymnasiums. Additionally, more than 15 classrooms were painted and other offices/utility areas were stripped and waxed and thousands of feet of flooring were treated with polyurethane. We are extremely thankful to the facilities and maintenance staff for their incredible work.

Finally, after a successful vote to acquire the property at 314 Pelhamdale Avenue last June, the District’s architect is developing plans to convert the house into office space for central administration. In the interim, administrators will remain in the high school at 18 Franklin Place. Additionally, the District is working to install fencing so that the new property’s yard may be used for additional outdoor space at Colonial School in the early fall.

Please enjoy the last few days of summer and we look forward to the start of a new and exciting school year!