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Updated: December 21, 2022 @ 12:07 pm
Students walk through what will be a back hallway, as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans Elementary School building project to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed.
Student Jackson Pereira listens while visiting an electrical room as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans Elementary School to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed.
Brendan O’Connor, site supervisor for W.T. Rich Company, talks about East Veterans Elementary School’s electrical generators as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans sit to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed.
Student Derek Ellms, center, looks up at massive electrical panels as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans Elementary School building project.
Gloucester High School electrical tech students listen to Brendan O’Connor, site supervisor for W.T. Rich Company, as the Gloucester High Career/Vocational Technical Education class tours the East Veterans Elementary School building site to learn how modern electrical systems are installed.
Student Alex Polizzi enters the third floor of East Veterans Elementary School through a temporary sheet door as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the school construction site to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed. 12/8/22
Students walk through what will be a back hallway, as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans Elementary School building project to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed.
Student Jackson Pereira listens while visiting an electrical room as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans Elementary School to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed.
Brendan O’Connor, site supervisor for W.T. Rich Company, talks about East Veterans Elementary School’s electrical generators as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans sit to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed.
Student Derek Ellms, center, looks up at massive electrical panels as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the East Veterans Elementary School building project.
Gloucester High School electrical tech students listen to Brendan O’Connor, site supervisor for W.T. Rich Company, as the Gloucester High Career/Vocational Technical Education class tours the East Veterans Elementary School building site to learn how modern electrical systems are installed.
Student Alex Polizzi enters the third floor of East Veterans Elementary School through a temporary sheet door as the Gloucester High School’s Career/Vocational Technical Education’s Electrical Tech class tours the school construction site to learn how modern building electrical systems are installed. 12/8/22
On Thursday around 11:30 a.m., two groups of hardhat-wearing students from Gloucester High’s Career/Vocational Technical Education program headed into the $66.7 million East Veterans Elementary School under construction on Webster Street to get an up-close view of the project.
The students in the Carpentry Tech program went one way, while six students in instructor Robert Devlin’s Electrical Tech class were joined by a reporter and photographer as project officials described how the 440-student, kindergarten through fifth-grade school is being wired.
They toured various electrical and data rooms. They were shown how the sprinkler systems are wired. They were even shown where the school’s transformer and emergency generator will soon sit outside the school, which is expected to be ready for occupation by this summer.
“We are over 50% complete on the work,” said Brian Hromadka, senior project manager with the city’s owner’s project manager, CBRE/Herry. “We’ve been getting a lot of work done here in Building A (the academic wing), moving from the third floor down to the first floor and then moving into Building B, which is the separate wing that houses the gymnasium and the cafeteria and administration offices.”
“It’s a lot of fun and it will be a great environment for the kids here,” Hromadka said of the project.
Hromadka said crews are working to get the outside of the academic wing buttoned up.
“Walls are being painted in the academic A Building,” said Superintendent Ben Lummis during a School Committee meeting on Nov. 30. He said the A Building is secured from the elements and crews are continuing to install metal panels on the exterior.
Work ongoing in the B Building involves the roof, electrical, plumbing, wallboard and plastering. Windows are coming in and being installed.
“Yeah, it just keeps on going,” Lummis said.
During the tour on Thursday, project officials described the techniques electricians used to wire the building. They outlined the importance of the electrical systems to the school’s functioning, from the wiring for the flow of data and information, to the sprinkler and safety systems.
They also spoke about the importance of the building’s energy management systems to conserve power. and they spoke about how electricians work in and among other trades to get the building wired.
Amid the almost constant din of drilling or backup alarms, the group got a look at the various electric rooms in the academic wing, and then moved over to look at wiring in the B Building.
“They are learning what it looks like,” said instructor Devlin, a licensed electrician. “We don’t get to see this. We don’t get to do this. So they get to see from beginning to end. This is the beginning of it and then we get across we’ll see the end of it. It’s a good experience for them to see … they’ve seen the wire that they are using now. Now they can see it in a real, live application, not just building a quick project in the shop.”
This also was Devlin’s first time through the project and he was impressed.
Looking up at lines of metal piping in a neatly configured L-shaped configuration overhead in an electrical room, Brendan O’Connor, a superintendent with general contractor W.T. Rich and Company of Natick, said: “When you see that, you know that you have good tradesmen and a good contractor on the site, OK. They are not spaghetti. It’s neat, clean and symmetrical. Taking pride in their work, OK.”
O’Connor toured the building’s electrical work alongside John Hughes, an electrical foreman with Annese Electrical Services of Weymouth. It was Hughes who gave students the technical details on how various systems were wired. At the end of the tour, he also took time to speak to the students about what it takes to pursue an apprenticeship to someday become a licensed electrician.
“Very informational,” said Gloucester High junior Markus Silva, 17, who is looking to become an electrician someday. “We learned a lot about how they wired up the school, all the electrical work that they did and just everything.” Silva said it was worth it to see the job site. “I learned that there are a lot of different types of wires that they used and that it’s important to keep them neat.”
Silva was joined on the tour by fellow electrical tech students seniors Alex Polizzi, 18, and Jackson Pereira and Derek Ellms, both 17; and juniors Kara Whitney, 16, and Daniel Alves, 17.
“It’s nice to see it under construction,” Devlin said. “The kids get to see it. They get to see the piping, and we are doing a lot of piping right now at the school so, this shows … we can do that. I can do that, we’ve done this.”
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at [email protected].
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at [email protected].
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