State Street Elementary School in Skaneateles is known for its practical yet stylish architecture and the modern conveniences of its design.

Now the building is in the final stages of becoming an even more appealing place for educating young minds.

Construction workers are in the final phase of a 14-month long project to renovate parts of the school building, including asbestos abatement, plumbing and electrical work and additions to the school's second floor and library.

“This whole project has been a great thing to see,” Principal Stephen Widrick said from his office.

At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, he explained, teachers emptied all the classrooms so workers could remove asbestos from the floors and ceilings last summer.

Following the abatement, crews upgraded plumbing, electrical systems and heating registers.

Throughout the school year, students have spent time in classrooms with concrete floors and bare walls, even using temporary rooms in the district bus garage while crews renovated each classroom.

The workers, according to Widrick, “have gone out of their way to provide us with whatever we needed as far as safety precautions, and they've worked around our schedules.”

The fourth-graders left their classrooms in the converted bus garage last week. Now crews will begin converting the former garage into the district's administration offices.

In February, the construction crew, which is headed by MCK Building Associates from Syracuse, completed additions to the school's second floor including a group instruction room, new science and art rooms, and a staff lounge.

Workers are currently in the final phase of the project of renovating the library.

“The library's being expanded. It has a very high ceiling so we're putting a second floor loft in, which will become a new computer lab,” Widrick said.

Project leaders expect renovations to wrap up by August.

“So everything will be completed by the time the kids come back in the fall,” he added.

District Superintendent Phil D'Angelo said the approximately $4 million project is under budget

“We're extremely pleased with the product,” he said last week. “Even better is to see the kids and the teachers in their new environment, and how excited they are.”

Part of the renovation included several new Elmo digital visual presenters, which D'Angelo said are a type of “next generation” overhead projector.

The technology allows teachers to display individual lessons and cut group instruction time, which translates to teachers providing students with more individual support.

“Another neat thing is that if kids take digital pictures, the memory cards go right into these Elmos, so they can show pictures and things immediately,” D#,Angelo said.