As our summer begins to wind down and we turn our thoughts toward the new school year, you may have noticed lots of activity at Moravia's Millard Fillmore Elementary School.

In June, truck loads of materials were delivered and stacked in back of the school in preparation for replacing most of the roof. Dumpsters and heavy equipment have dominated the view in front of the building throughout the summer.

Voters in Moravia Central School passed a special building project proposal on Feb. 13, 2007. The proposal included some long needed maintenance projects and some projects that will enhance our students' education for many years to come. Included in the proposal was the removal, abatement and replacement of most of the elementary school's roof. School administration hoped that the aging roof would remain functional until the project could begin.

Bureaucratic wheels can turn slowly, and there were many factors that stretched out the approval process. The New York State Legislature created the EXCEL program two years ago, which encouraged school districts across New York to apply for funding for building projects by a certain date and to include particular elements in the building proposal.

For example, schools were encouraged to propose projects that included environmentally or eco-friendly aspects or specific technologies that fit certain criteria. Moravia qualified for about $300,000. There were many schools that chose to pursue this EXCEL funding. At the state Education Department, there is a department called “Facilities Planning,” run by Carl Thurnau, P.E. coordinator. This department was inundated with applications for projects because of the EXCEL monies. At the same time that all these applications were rolling in, one of the staff members in facilities planning was promoted and was not replaced. Short-handed and swamped, applications were handled as quickly as possible, but it took many months.

At the same time this application process was grinding forward, it became clear that the roof needed to be replaced immediately. While dividing a project rarely happens once it has been approved, the elementary roof portion of the project was separated from the rest of the project and expedited. Thurnau, of State Education's Facilities Planning, worked with our administration to move this through and thus, allow our district to replace our leaking elementary roof.

In March, we received approval to proceed with its replacement.

J & B Installations, Inc. of Skaneateles was awarded the contract to remove the old layers, repair any parts of the roof that needed to be fixed and install a new roof. Many old layers have now been removed and disposed of. Testing of the decking, which is the underlying structure of the roof has revealed that only a small portion, near the cafeteria, required replacement. A new drainage system has been installed. Sky lights, which brightened our hallways, were unfortunately causing some of the problems. These have now been removed.

Although the weather has hardly been cooperative, J&B is progressing on schedule. At the July 31 bi-weekly building project meeting the roof project was 65 percent finished.

Completion is expected for the opening of school, Sept. 2.

Mid-August, we received approval for the rest of the project. Just this past week, notice for bids has gone out. Bill Tammaro, our school superintendent, expects that our board of education will award bids mid-September. Work on our new bus garage and the parking on the north end of the high school will begin shortly after that. He predicts that our refurbished track will be operational by the end of September. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony during our Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 27, to celebrate the re-opening of the track.

Our thanks and appreciation are extended to Sen. Michael Nozzolio for his assistance in securing a $100,000 grant to help with the cost of the complete removal of the old track and application of the new surface.

We again express our appreciation to our community for approving this construction project.

Thank you, voters! It is also great to know that while bureaucracies (and the New York State Education Department certainly qualifies) can move at an excruciatingly slow pace, swift action is possible when truly needed.

Pat Kinney is an art teacher at Millard Fillmore Elementary School in Moravia