DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997                TAG: 9704100608

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

"NEW" OAKLAND ELEMENTARY NEARLY COMPLETE

SUFFOLK - You won't recognize the place.

That's the word on 73-year-old Oakland Elementary School, heading into the last few months of its yearlong, $5.8 million addition and renovation work.

Workers have demolished two old buildings on the Godwin Boulevard site near Chuckatuck in northwest Suffolk, and wrapped two others in different kinds of brick and brick trim. Gone are the covered walkways connecting the various buildings. Gone also are most of the insides - workers added a new classroom wing, a new gym that can be used by the community, a new library, a new cafeteria and commons area, and new central offices.

All this new stuff is under a new roof which, when completed by the first week in April, will mean work can continue despite the weather, said Brian V. Camden, senior construction manager for Powell Management Associates of Norfolk, who is supervising the work. Interior painting already has begun, and the ``new'' school should be completed by mid-July, Camden said.

``We tore down most everything,'' he said. ``The bottom line is, we've had an easy winter.

``We're on schedule and on budget.''

Oakland's students are spending the school year across town in the even older Florence Bowser Elementary School building on Nansemond Parkway, which was to be closed but may be kept open next year for kindergarten classes crowded out of other buildings.

- Matthew Bowers Beach school falling behind schedule

VIRGINIA BEACH - The clock is ticking a little louder in the countdown to the completion of Corporate Landing Middle School, scheduled to open in the fall. Construction has fallen behind, pushing the completion date closer to the start of school in September.

The overall project was 13 days behind as of late March, and the cafeteria and administration portions of the building were 33 days behind. A month ago, the school board was notified that the overall project was 11 days behind and that the cafeteria and administration areas were 28 days behind.

The overall project was scheduled to be finished in late July, but a completion date in mid-August now appears more likely, according to Anthony Arnold, director of the Office of Facilities Planning and Construction.

``It's going to be close,'' Arnold said. ``We're going to need the weather to cooperate. We've got people working six days a week and that'll probably be seven days a week by summer.''

Christopher Farms Elementary School, also scheduled to open next fall, is slightly behind but should be completed in July, Arnold said.

- Aleta Payne

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