New Edward Little High School on track to open next month

AUBURN — Dozens of workers were moving furniture Thursday and putting the finishing touches on many of the essential functions in the new Edward Little High School before it opens for classes next month.

“I’ve just been chomping at the bit, I’m so excited,” Edward Little High School Principal Scott Annear said.

Over the past two weeks, movers have brought stacks of desks, chairs, boxes and more from the old school next door and set them in their intended rooms.

Truckloads of new furniture began arriving this week, he said.

As of now, the school is on track to welcome students for the first day of orientation in late August, Annear said. Some odds and ends will be unfinished, but the essential academic and administrative spaces – including the kitchen, cafeteria, gym and library – will be ready.

“The priority has been ‘what do we need to make school happen?'” he said.

In the Main Commons, long, colorful lights hang from the ceiling. The grand community stairs are finished, except for a composite art installation depicting the Great Falls on the Androscoggin River between Lewiston and Auburn.

Students will be able to use the courtyard as well as the hallways to get from classroom to classroom at the new Edward Little High School in Auburn. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Nearly all of the appliances for the new Lewiston Regional Technical Center’s student-run café are in, and boxes of books and other items fill the library.

In the main gym, the wood flooring, bleachers, basketball hoops and scoreboard have been installed. Only the court lines and the Red Eddies emblem at the center are left. The scoreboard from the old Edward Little High School now hangs in the nearby auxiliary gym.

Construction in the auditorium, however, is ongoing. On Thursday, workers were installing the floor of the stage. The seating is planned to arrive in mid- to late-August, and some pieces of the sound system won’t be ready until later this fall, Annear said.

The auditorium is scheduled to be complete in time for the high school musical in November, he said.

Due to the added space of the gyms and the auditorium, Annear said Edward Little will be able to host graduation inside if needed, rather than reschedule in case of bad weather, as previously done.

Academic “neighborhoods” scattered throughout the building are still being set up. An office on the second floor has been dedicated to School Resource Officer Dennis Mathews, who is set to return for the start of the school year.

About 100 lockers are scattered through the hallways. These will be available for students on an as-needed basis. Indentations in the hallways will soon hold monitors used to display announcements.

“My hunch is over the first month they’ll have maps,” Annear said with a laugh.

In the middle of the school is a courtyard of asphalt pathways and gravel. Annear said there will be places for students to sit outside during lunch or while using the library when the weather is nice.

Edward Little High School Principal Scott Annear looks Thursday at the new building on Harris Street in Auburn. “I’ve just been chomping at the bit, I’m so excited,” he says of next month’s scheduled opening. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Nearly every classroom has a door connecting it to an adjacent room, Annear said. The safety feature means that most students and teachers can move to another classroom without entering the hallway, if needed.

Another feature in the academic spaces is two-tone flooring. The brown part of the floor shows where students and staff can hide if they don’t want to be visible from the hallway.

The full school staff likely won’t be able to get into the new school to start setting up their classrooms until early August, Annear said. That’s when they hope to receive a full occupancy certificate from the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal.

Until then, Annear said he’s hoping to obtain a temporary occupancy certificate for the high school office staff to begin using the school. These staff members are split between Auburn Hall, Park Avenue Elementary School and Auburn Middle School.

The gymnasium floor has been installed at the new Edward Little High School in Auburn. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Outside, the football stadium and track are coming closer to completion. The turf field is ready, and the bleachers are in. However, the eight-lane track still needs to be surfaced, and the press box installed.

The stadium will be ready for the start of fall sports in mid-August, Annear said. The new tennis courts, too, will be done by spring.

However, the baseball and softball teams will need to practice off-site for another year. Those fields are planned for the site of the old high school, which will be torn down starting in September.

Workers will begin abating the polychlorinated biphenyls, a hazardous material more commonly known as PCBs, from the old school later this month.

Eventually, the statue of Edward little will be moved to the front of the new school.

Annear said he doesn’t believe the later-than-expected demolition will be a problem for students and staff. Until the permanent bus lane and additional parking can be completed, a temporary bus lane will be created.

The ninth and 10th graders will preview the school during orientation Aug. 30, and the 11th and 12th graders will come Aug. 31. The first day of classes will be Sept. 1.