School renovations continue as teachers prepare for new year

“The kids shouldn’t need hard hats…”

Walking into the Crested Butte Community School through a corridor of chain link fence feels like entering a compound. The library windows that once let students look out on Crested Butte Mountain are blocked with panels, rendering the room dark and cramped.

“It looks like a cave,” says Stephanie Niemi, the school’s principal.
Heavy equipment and signs of construction, and in some places sheets of hanging plastic, obstruct the school’s first-floor views. Although the interior renovations at the school are complete, according to Marc Litzen, the project manager for FCI Constructors, signs of the continuing renovation are everywhere.
Niemi and Litzen both say the interior of the school will be ready when students arrive for the first day of classes on Monday, August 31, but the construction isn’t without its effects as teachers start to prepare their classrooms.
“There is no extra space,” Niemi says. “So far everybody is doing whatever they can with the available space. We have no choice.”
A week before the school will open its doors to students, the space inside is changing hands from tradesmen to teachers. Mike Baker, the school’s daytime custodian, was moving shelves from the school’s stage in preparation for its conversion back into a classroom that will be full six periods of the day.
“The floor here [in the multipurpose room] still needs to be sealed and that will be done in the next day or two,” he says, pointing to the new all-natural, formaldehyde-free Forbo Marmoleum flooring.
“I’ll probably clean and polish the stage, too, if I have time. It’s all gotta be done … now.”
Behind him, workers were scraping the walls and putting the finishing touches on the serving window of the new kitchen. Elsewhere in the halls of the school, there were boxes of books and teaching materials mixed among the construction materials, and a few classrooms were showing signs of life.
“We’re getting ready to go,” says Aimee Artigues, a math and science teacher, in her room on Monday. “We weren’t sure what to expect. But it looks like kids shouldn’t need hardhats or ski helmets on the first day of school.”
Artigues’ room will still be shared between a seventh grade math class and eighth to twelfth grade science classes. Down the hall, Sarah Smith is preparing her closet-turned-classroom for Spanish language students.
The first summer of renovation work at CBCS has provided many improvements, like up-to-date wiring to support new technology, a new and expanded kitchen, new or refinished flooring in the multipurpose room and gymnasium, among other tune-ups.
The dust from the construction has settled and the building smells like carpet shampoo and fresh paint while there are still murals and art on the walls and nicks in the lockers and handrails, so it still feels lived in.
But there have been major renovations taking place at the school and it has yet to give teachers, or the approximately 530 students expected this year, any additional space. That will come from the construction of the expansions that is now under way and is expected to be completed a year from now.
“We’re still growing and we do probably have less space than we had last year,” Niemi says. “We’re out of room. I’ve converted the music room and every closet I could over the last couple of years [into classrooms]. Thank goodness for the bond, because if it hadn’t passed we’d be in a crisis.”
She fires off a list of teachers or classes that have to move around for lack of space and thinks the current arrangement still might be toughest on teachers in the two modular classrooms parked outside of the school. They don’t have any bathrooms or running water and they have to go outside before they can get into the school.
This year an additional third grade class was needed and next year Niemi says there will be an additional fourth grade.
“Nine months and we’ll be in much better shape,” she says.
 From her perspective, Artigues sees, “For the most part, things are staying the same,” and she understands some “disruption is part of the game.”
Litzen hopes the disruptions will be cut to a minimum now that all of the demolition work is finished on the school grounds. But there is going to be the inevitable banging and beeps of equipment in reverse as construction moves forward on the expansion, which is scheduled to be finished next summer.
“The plan is to have those areas closed-in fairly soon so work can continue through the winter,” Litzen says. “Once that happens, noise won’t be much of a factor. A lot of the noisy stuff is pretty well out of the way.”
The construction will also have an unavoidable effect on the flow of traffic for the school and people around the school. Because of the construction, all cars will be forced to park in the main lot on the northwest side of the school, there will be plenty of fencing to keep people out of harm’s way and the closure of Ninth Street toward the gravel pit will continue through October.
The two primary ways in or out of the school will be at the main entrance by the office and at the elementary end of the building. The door by the modular buildings will also always be open and accessible to students, since there is no construction in the area.
“We have emergency egress plans in place, fencing to keep students out of areas they shouldn’t be in, signs posted and plans laid out if there is a fire alarm or emergency,” superintendent Jon Nelson says. “All of those plans will be gone through with students in the first days of school.”
Steps will also be taken inside the school to keep students safe. Niemi says even the boards on the library windows serve a purpose, with heavy steel beams flying around on the other side of the glass.
Students and parents will get a chance to hear about the renovation and safety measures being taken at Back to School Night, scheduled for Thursday, September 10 at 5 p.m.