The recent cold spell has caused only minor problems in the construction of the new Gilles-Sweet Elementary school, project manager Kevin Klee of Regency Construction said.

Overall, the project is on budget and on time, he said.

Klee led members of Fairview Park City Council, the Board of Education and other city leaders on a tour of the building, located at West 220th Street and Alexander Road, Sunday afternoon.

“The winter spell stopped us cold — no pun intended,” Klee said. But he added the entire structure will be covered with a finished roof within days.

The new school, a major part of the $50 million Gemini Project voters narrowly approved two years ago, will be open to students in August.

Gemini Project proponents originally said the building would host students in kindergarten through grade five. However, the district decided to cancel plans to build an addition to Lewis F. Mayer Middle School. As a result, sixth-graders will attend classes at the new Gilles-Sweet.

Still officially undecided is where kindergarten students will go. Kindergarten enrollment in the district begins this week. If the district has a large number of kindergarten students for the fall, they may attend classes at Parkview School on Mastick Road. Today Parkview holds grades four through six, but next year it will be home to the district’s pre-school and daycare programs as well as administrative offices.

Superintendent Brion Deitsch said Sunday that the most likely scenario is that kindergarten students will attend Gilles-Sweet. A final decision from the district is expected by Thursday.

Some Gilles-Sweet classrooms were designed specifically for kindergarten classes, Klee said during Sunday’s tour. The first-floor kindergarten classrooms have their own bathrooms and some can be divided by separators, he said.

Above: Kevin Klee, project manager for Regency Construction (on the right in the foreground), leads a tour Sunday afternoon of the new Gilles-Sweet Elementary School now under construction. This room is the school’s auditorium/cafeteria. Below: An opposite view of the auditorium/cafeteria showing a performance stage on the left. (Photos by Larry Bennet)

An auditorium with a production-capable stage doubles as the cafeteria. The kitchen was built with expanded capabilities in mind, Klee said.

“We’ve designed that kitchen to serve the whole district,” Klee said, noting it can also provide food for Fairview High School students.

The gym, which has adjacent areas for storage and physical education teacher offices, will have a wooden floor even though state standards decree vinyl gym floors are adequate for elementary schools.

“We paid a little extra for it,” Klee said of the yet to be installed wood floor, “but we got a real good deal from the contractor.”

Much of the second floor, like the north and west sides of the first floor, has 900-square-ffot classrooms.

“The difference is the second floor is for the older kids and they get lockers,” Klee said.

“It’ll be a real, real nice building when it’s finished,” Klee said, adding that teachers and staff will begin moving into offices in July.

 The municipal portion of the Gemini Project vote — a .5 percent increase in the city income tax to build the community recreation center (now under construction just north of the Fairview Park Library branch) — passed by only 59 votes out of 5,693 ballots cast. The school portion, a capital improvement levy to pay for construction of the new Gilles-Sweet Elementary School, passed by a slightly more comfortable margin — 136 votes out of 5,693 passed. However, both issues needed to be approved for the project to go forward.

Jim Stark, who co-chaired the campaign to get the Gemini Project passed by voters, said he believes community support for will be much stronger than the vote indicated once residents see the results of the effort.

“I think if you re-did the vote after the school opens and after the (community recreation center) opens, it won’t be as close as it was initially,” Stark said.

“Afterwards, it’s going to be kind of hard to find people who say they voted against it,” said Robert Kreps, the other co-chair.

Both were impressed with the tour of Gilles-Sweet.

“I think the main reaction anybody would have on a first walk-through is ‘wow,” Kreps said. “It’s clearly going to be a wonderful place for the kids to go to school.”

“You can tell it’s well thought out and well designed,” Starks said. “And kids are going to be very excited and parents are going to be very excited.”