GETTING CLOSE!

Things are really taking shape and schedules are on target for our occupancy of the third and final phase of construction!

LOCKER ROOMS!  We were without last year - 

will be nice to see them back in action!

Workers on pace to crush the next Friday deadline for installing the flooring in the field house.  Can't wait to break it in with a little round-ball

Bruce Company completed sodding the athletic/rec field outside the field house.  Green space returns, but be patient - need to help the grass set some good roots

Lockers went in today in the machine shop in the GTT area

Some additional stripes completed in the
Competition ("old") Gym

ANOTHER POST - QUICK!

I had a bit of time today to get some new shots of the last month of construction - after two speedy years we are almost there!

Floor installation in the field house continues.  They should have the boards in by next Friday

Standing in the "Recess/Play Area" soon to have basketball hoops and other markings for recess.  Across the median will be overflow parking.  The recess area and overflow parking will be separated by a gate during the school day.

Nice space for Gateway to Technology 

Another GTT learning space........

Fitness room continues to take SHAPE - haha

This is the view from the "main" third phase area looking toward the field house and locker rooms

Couple shots of music education

"Main" 3rd phase hallway again showing spaces for displaying student work/trophies, etc..

Instrument storage off the band room

Looking down the hallway near locker rooms (left) and field house (right)

PARDON THE DELAY....... Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely....

Thanks to the City of Middleton; the view of the back of Kromrey, from the Conservancy

As you drive by the school you will notice that building signage has been installed.  We took a few minutes to make sure the 'E' in KROMREY was going in the correct spot. Often times we get spelled, 'Kromery".  The wall signs have LED lights behind and should add a nice touch.  Soon a corner display sign will be installed at the intersection of Park and Donna Drive.

Two years or so ago we saw a new crane on our athletic field.  If you drive by now you will notice the third, and last, phase of construction nearing completion.  We are anticipating getting the keys and accessing the entire building on August 8th.  Two areas will need additional time to cure - the Field House floor needs time to cure and open for use the week of September 8th.  The new athletic field sod will need time to set roots and be ready 

for use in late October.

Sub floor going in, but will need time to cure - ready for use the week of September 8.  People are very anxious to get in and start moving!

We are happy to continue reporting that we are accident free on site!

EARLY VIEW OF FIELD-HOUSE

JUST A QUICK POST TODAY WITH A VISUAL

Ceiling joist work on field-house is almost complete.  Soon the space will be enclosed, allowing us to get a better feel for the completed space.  Not too much else going on since the temps have plunged to single digits and way below 0 windchill.

Recent school/Findorff construction meetings have finalized the decision to sod the athletic/recreational field to the east and an agreement reached on the number and types of signage around and on the building.  There will be a message scroll sign on the corner of Park Street and Donna Drive.  

This sign will have a timer to turn the scroll/lights off at night so to not disrupt the neighbors.

Getting Prepared for the Last Round

We continue to feel fortunate to work in a very supportive community - one that values great educational opportunities for our students.  The journey we have gone through in the past 10 years would make for an interesting screenplay.  

We will see prefab walls go up in the next month - walls that will house a good portion of the last section of construction. Discussion and plans are ongoing about the signage that will go up on the building and around the grounds to help identify the school.  Conversations continue about the surface of the athletic/rec field - with a possible decision coming next week.  

We are also anxious to gain additional parking in the front of the building and the back corner near the Conservancy. Families will have the additional spaces to pull up and wait for their students after school.  This will stretch from the main parking lot entrance down near the corner of Donna and Park Lawn.  Families will likely be able to pull up on Park Lawn before and after school as well.  More to come.......

A week ago we could still imagine what we used to look like.

As demolition progressed we had to start imagining what things will look like.

Some wondered if we found the mysterious tunnels and dungeons that must have lived here........ We haven't asked yet.

Looking east, from the back stairwell of 5th grade, the footprint of the field-house is poking through the sand.  The plastic covering the foundation, just below middle, is one wall and the sky blue insulation, poking up just above middle, is the other wall.  The field-house stretches from left to right past the mound of dirt to the right edge.  That far wall is the east edge of the building - field beyond that.

HAPPY TO REPORT INJURY FREE WORK!

So much has happened since we last met........

We've certainly been through many changes since I last updated this.  I believe we were just weeks away from moving 8th graders from old to new.  From that point on we had the enormous task of marking furniture from the "Vintage" building.  We had to decide what things would make the move, where they would go, decide what could be sold or shuffled around the district and finally what items were trash.  

Today, it is feeling more and more like a school-year flow.  We have just come back from Thanksgiving break, kids and staff have been settled into new spaces for over a month now and we get ready for the pre-Winter Break anxiety.

Here are a variety of photos with a few lines.   

Kromrey Middle School - Middleton, Wisconsin - one of two middle schools in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District - just west of Lake Mendota in Madison, WI.  We are 2/3rds complete with our $49m project.

View looking west from one of our copter-flying parents.  "Vintage" Kromrey can be seen at the bottom - we have just started to see the walls start to come down today.  "Vintage will transform into music class rooms, Gateway to Technology/Engeneering, a fitness area, field-house, competition field and overflow parking.  We are obviously excited to get to the end at this point.  

I am blessed to work with some great students and staff - here is a shot from summer planning with our admin team.

Big thanks to Mr. Engel - Dean of Students.  He is a great systems (science) guy that get's er done!

Important, now with stairs, to get some Evacuation Chair training in.  He's a big ham - actually really easy to use the chair.  I didn't have to hold him, rather had to push him down on the skids.

Some great site-lines of dismissal from the 5th grade wing.

Here is a typical classroom that opens into a large collaboration space. Fun to watch people not only share lessons, but units of study in the space.  Student engagement reported to be up too!

Now for some bitter-sweet

Demolition of "Vintage" Kromrey is underway.  It won't take long now for the old bird to become a distant memory.  Ten years in this building for me.  

Soon to be an area that will be an entrance for a field-house.  Door to main hallway yanked off.  Gotta get the forklift in there somehow...

For those of you who attended this school in the 60's and 70's, this was the main entrance.

COUNTDOWN T-MINUS 33 DAYS UNTIL OPENING OF THE NEW SCHOOL

So we have reached the point in the construction process where we can begin to turn the vision into reality.  We have been given clearance to have office furniture installed, just in time for us to prepare for roughly 1000 fifth through eighth graders, and their families, to come in on August 13th for Information Day.

Fantastic weather allowed asphalt to be spread on schedule.

The fork in the lane, center of photo, splits buses only to the right and visitor traffic to the left.  Too early to tell.....

Stage curtains were hung today - a photo showing the curtains lining the sides and back of the stage............. 

.............. along with this shot of the main stage curtain. Sharp!

The vintage main gym floor was poured and spread today.  One day of touch-up and we should be ready for stripes soon.

The collaborative spaces, in academic wings, will have some walls with ideapaint - dry erase pen worthy.  COOL!

Still plenty to do with construction and on the school administrative set-up of the school year.  Happy to report no injuries.