Summer School Test: Waxing Floors in 431 Northwest Classrooms

School may be out for summer in the , especially now that summer classes have finished, but that doesn't mean there isn't still a considerable amount of school work to do.

For example, there are hundreds classroom floors that need to be waxed. 

The floor work falls under the purview of Terry Russell, Northwest's executive director of administrative services. He is responsible for seeing to the maintenance of Northwest's 12 campuses with a dozen buildings to maintain and keep running smoothly. Northwest buildings encompass 981,629 square feet on 256 acres of property throughout the district.

The summer months means "normal maintenance" Russell said, which includes stripping wax from and rewaxing every classroom floor. There are 431 classrooms.

This summer, there also will be new boilers installed at House Springs and Maple Grove elementary schools. An outside wall will be painted before classes resume at Valley Middle School this fall. Hallways in several Northwest schools also will be painted.

Two of the big projects this summer will be roof replacements on the Woodbridge Middle School gym and the Early Childhood Center gym. Those projects will be carried out by Bade Roofing Co., which was awarded the work by the Northwest Board of Education, following  a competitive bidding process. Both roofs are expected to be completed before school starts this fall

"We are keeping an eye on everything," Russell said. "We have some age on our buildings, so maintenance is important. It takes quite a crew to get the job done."

To that end, Russell depends on the 54 members of the district's maintenance department, to make sure the school buildings look their best.

It may be most important at High Ridge Elementary School, where age is a factor. The school is the oldest in the district, originally built in 1936 and upgraded four times.

The newest school building in the district is the high school, built in 1998. It also is the largest at 334,200 square feet, housing 96 classrooms on a 63-acre campus.

"We have to get a little creative sometimes to get the job done, but we're able to manage," Russell said.

Below is a list of the Northwest School District's facilities, with information about their location, age, size and amount of classrooms. The list, in effect, represents Terry Russell's, and his maintenance staff's "to do" list for the summer and beyond.