Before and After Backhoe Photos

Crestwood Elementary School is the site of demolition this week during Spring Break as backhoes uprooted trees and flattened the front courtyard in preparation for a new look.

The district is rehabbing the classic look of the main entrance in addition to completing nine new classrooms which will bring the total up from 16 to 25, according to district information.

Photos show how the shaded grassy area looked last fall before the excavation. A rendering of the new look is here by clicking on the small drawing (PDF) under the photos.

The work is part of Proposition R 2008 funding which provided for a $31 million bond issue exclusively for capital improvements—meaning brick and mortar.

Long Elementary will be getting a similar facelift to its main entrance and seven more classrooms, bringing its total up from 18 to 27 classrooms.

The construction work on schools across the district are part of a master plan that re-opens Truman Elementary this fall as a middle school, the building of a new Early Childhood Education center which opened last month, renovating Concord to re-open as an elementary school by the coming school year.

Work on both Long and Crestwood would be completed fall 2011 and add music and art room, bathrooms, classrooms and enhanced main entrances.

Does anyone read the book  Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel with their children anymore? The main character is a precurser to backhoes.

The Crestwood and Long additions were both designed by Ittner Architects and will be constructed by Tri-Co Inc. Commercial.