By MATT LINDSEY

With St. Lawrence County schools set to open Sept. 3, an unusually early start before Labor Day, students will see changes to buildings and classrooms, new programs and initiatives and dozens of new faculty and staff.

Potsdam Central is nearing completion of $18 million in renovations including new exterior wall paneling at the high school, replacement of the heating system and new roofs. Joann Chambers begins the year as superintendent replacing Pat Brady.

Norwood-Norfolk has resurfaced its track and started improvements to the parking lot with plans for even more parking lot changes that will take nearly a year and half.

Madrid-Waddington has begun the search for a new superintendent and will begin a $3.9 million capital project while Canton welcomes several new faculty and staff to the school.

Parishville-Hopkinton looks to implement a one-to-one computer to student ratio program while Colton-Pierrepont is expanding its same computer program for fifth and sixth grade students.

Building, Leadership Changes

At Potsdam Central, students can expect to see the results of the nearly complete $18 million capital project.

The original 1929 section of the high school will have an entirely new look. The new metal wall panel system represents a single material weather barrier and insulation layer, which encapsulates the old masonry construction.

“Insulating the interior of the building would technically be ideal, but would not achieve the continuous insulation that is desired, and would be very invasive within the buildings spaces, causing very large expense and disruption,” said Chambers.

The existing masonry will no longer be exposed to elements therefore any deterioration will cease, she said.

“Teachers would say how difficult is was to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer on that side of the building,” Chambers said.

The project also includes replacing the 50-year-old steam heating system in the high school, upgraded lighting throughout the district, new roofs at the high school, elementary school, and bus garage, upgraded electrical system, a newly-installed fire alarm system, improvements in all three kitchens, a renovated high school auditorium, a renovated high school technology suite, and more.

Construction began in the spring of 2014 and is expected to wrap up by the end of this year.

“Our teachers are continuing to develop local curriculum to address the increased expectations of the Common Core State Standards,” Chambers said.

At A.A. Kingston Middle School, new electives for seventh and eighth grade students include CSI, a hands-on forensic science course, wilderness survival, and independent living, which teaches students real-world skills. In addition, an honors art course for 8th graders will be added.

“Because we recognize the importance of meeting our students’ physical, emotional, and academic needs, our middle school has also developed a plan to provide daily recess to all students in grades 5-8,” she said.

The high school will offer a new course in the Project Lead the Way pre-engineering sequence entitled Computer Integrated Manufacturing.

“One of the reasons we chose to add this course is in response to a concern we were hearing from local industries that they are having trouble finding good computer numeric controlled (CNC) machinist. We were thrilled to receive support for a new CNC machine for this course through the generosity of The Corning Foundation,” Chambers said.

With Lawrence Avenue Elementary School Principal Larry Jenne retiring, the school hired Shannon Pitcher-Boyea as his replacement. Pitcher-Boyea has years of education experience as a principal for BOCES, Malone Central School District, and she most recently worked in the Keene Central School District.

The school will fill multiple teachings and a guidance counselor position and is interviewing candidates for the high school principal job to replace Chambers.

The interim high school principal is Randy Johnson, who was K-12 principal at Colton-Pierrepont Central School before retiring, and school officials hope to hire the new high school principal by mid-October.

This year, Potsdam Central will use Facebook and Twitter to share information about programs and also have purchased a program called “One Call Now” allows mass voice calls, text messaging, and emails to staff and parents.

Student enrollment is up for 2015-2016 school year from 1335 in 2014-15 to 1405 this year.

New Track, Improved Parking

The completed work at Norwood-Norfolk Central School for Phase 1 of their capital project includes some areas which are easily visible and many which are not.

“Notably, our track was resurfaced and the elementary parking lot was expanded,” said Superintendent Jamie Cruikshank. “In order for this expansion, the primary playground was relocated and upgraded.

The resurfacing of the track was completed in July.

“If we had delayed this resurfacing, then we risked having to put more money into a new track,” he said. “This resurface will help the track last many, many more years.”

The expansion of the elementary parking lot will allow for additional parking spaces and a better parent drop-off and pick-up location. Parents may now pull into that parking lot and drop their children off in a designated area near the baseball field, he said.

There is a new entrance at the back of the gym allowing children access to the supervised elementary lobby. The drop-off area will release some bus traffic congestion in the front parking lot.

“We had an inspection completed on our primary playground,” Cruikshank said. “At this time we knew that we’d have to move this playground to make for additional room for parking, however our inspection indicated that we had 38 areas in the primary playground which provided some form of hazard.”

The issues have been addressed and the playground is now inspected with no listed hazards, according to Cruikshank.

Rubber tile flooring was chosen to upgrade high school classrooms.

“It has a long life-rating and the schools who have used this type of flooring are very pleased,” he said.

Some classrooms also received new counters to replace the ones which couldn’t be saved during the demolition of the old asbestos tiles.

Other work included a lot of asbestos abated and the installation of new flooring in many of the high school classrooms and basement hallway. There are also some school hallways that received new tiled walls.

Phase 2 of the project will be more visual and include more changes to the parking lot taking around 18 months to complete.

Norwood-Norfolk Central is adding a full-day pre-kindergarten class this year and will retain two half-day classes offered last year.

The school is still hiring faculty and staff, but several positions have been filled including high school English teacher Amanda Ives; two shared teachers: half-time high school English teacher Natalie Lucas and half-time high school math teacher Nichole Hartigan; and half-time teacher aide Sharleen Jay.

Enrollment is steadily increasing with approximately 1,055 students anticipated for this year.

New Canton Faculty, Staff

Canton Central School estimates enrollment for 2015-16 to be around 1290, similar to enrollment at the beginning of last year.

Several new faculty and staff members will begin work this year including new middle school special education teacher Melissa Adams, high school science teacher Meaghan Bartell, custodial staff Brittany Charleston, middle school science teacher Daniel Greene, school psychologist Keena-Marie Herne, custodial staff Phillip McMasters, special programs administrator Margaret Schlegel, high school English teacher Cailey Underhill, and elementary teacher Amanda White.

Opportunities to visit the school will be held in September for students and families in the middle and elementary schools. McKenney Middle School open house is set for Tuesday, Sept. 1, from 6 to 7 p.m. Kindergarten open house is slated for Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 1 until 2 p.m. Banford Elementary School will host their open house on Thursday, Sept. 4, from 6 to 7 p.m.

A temporary change in busing arrangements is planned when urgent circumstances arise require a change in busing for a child, the appropriate school office must receive written notice of a requested change no later than 8 a.m. the morning of the requested change. After 8 a.m., written emergency requests must be presented in person by the parent/guardian or person previously authorized as an emergency contact for the child.

Computers for Students

Parishville-Hopkinton Central School is in the planning phase of the one-to-one computer to student ratio program and will use Smart Schools Bond Act funds to help launch the program.

The funding will be used for the purchase of the technology hardware and training required for teachers to integrate digital technology into the daily activities of students and instruction for teachers.

“We are looking to transition to a one-to-one computer to student ratio over the next few years,” according to Superintendent Darin Saiff.

The district is required to have a Technology Plan Survey on file with the State Education Department by Oct. 16 for approval.

Once approved, the bond funds will be available for release to schools.

“We are also looking to utilize some of the funds to enable wireless internet connection on some, if not all of our buses,” he said. “With a large geographic district, and some students with longer seat times on the bus, this will give students increased access to those resources that they now require to be successful in college and career.”

New faculty and staff include Junior-Senior High Principal Virginia Doll, elementary reading specialist Erin Casey and cleaner Mike Phillips.

“The district has reduced one bus run due to declining student population combined with the district being held to a contingent budget for the 2015-2016 school year,” he said.

Enrollment projections are close to last year with around 420 students expected to attend this year, Saiff said.

Computer Program Expands

Colton-Pierrepont Central School Superintendent Joseph Kardash says the school plans to continue all programs and expand their 1:1 laptop program to allow grades 5 and 6 to take the Chromebooks home with them.

Students and parents must attend safety meetings before students receive laptops. Mandatory laptop distribution meetings will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 2 for grades 7 and 8 at 5 p.m., grades 9 and at 6 p.m. and grades 11 and at 7 p.m. Grades 5 and 6 as well as a makeup session for other grades is planned Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m.

Colton Central is planning a project to address aging roofs, asbestos abatement, auditorium safety, and a few other small items.

“More information will be shared with the community as we gather it,” Kardash said.

There will be familiar faces in new positions at the school. Jenna Williams will be a literacy specialist, Nate Pike will be a half math teacher and half teacher assistant and Ben Johnson is now a building maintenance worker.

“We had a record amount of staff development this summer,” he said. “As an educational institution, we continue to put a high value on continuous education at all levels.”

Enrollment projections should be reasonably stable at about 325 students, according to Kardash.