Marblehead Village school to re-open in part this week

MARBLEHEAD – The town won its race with the failing boilers at the Marblehead Village School – and the school was ready to re-open with new pick-up and drop-off locations.Grade 4 and 5 teachers are scheduled to set up classrooms at the school today for the 480 students in those grades. Grades 4 and 5 had today off and are scheduled to return to class Tuesday. The school?s 250 Grade 6 students returned to class today at the Marblehead Veterans Middle School and will spend the rest of the school year there, during Phase 2 of the Village School construction project.Next fall the completely renovated Marblehead Village School will reopen for Grades 4, 5 and 6.One of the crucial parts of the renovation – the replacement of the Village School boilers – had Principal Michael Hanna and the Village School teachers scrambling to deal with some low-temperature classrooms in December.?The new boilers are on-line,” Hanna said Sunday. “Those problems showed the need for the project.”The on-going construction requires school officials to restrict access to the rear of the Village Street building. Students will have to be dropped off and picked up at the entrance closest to Village Street. The school has posted a map on line on the school Web site.With the cafeteria shut down, students will use the auditorium as a temporary cafeteria.Today also marked the beginning of Phase 2 of the $11 million project. Phase 2 is expected to run through July. It will concentrate on the school cafeteria and the rest of the one-story part of the building and deal with the water that has remained under the school cafeteria since the school was built over a marsh.So far the project includes a new heating system, a renovated gym and the paving of the rear access road from Jersey Street. The town is scheduled to pay $5.2 million, and the state will pay the remaining $5.8 million – and those figures represent about half of what the town expected the school to cost.Hanna said he was impressed with the teachers? willingness to focus on their teaching despite the challenges, especially the instructional focus that has become the core of Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac?s educational leadership.Hanna said he also appreciated “the long-term hospitable relationship we have had with (Marblehead Veterans Middle School Principal) Libby Moore.”