ECMS move-in delayed until early in February
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

El Campo Middle School students will have to wait a couple weeks longer than they expected to move into their brand-new campus on FM 2765.

After meeting Wednesday with all parties involved in the $17.6-million construction project, ECISD Superintendent Mark Pool made the call to move the switch-over from the weekend of Jan. 19-21 to early February. He said he prefers to make the move the weekend of Feb. 2-3, but is keeping open the option of moving Feb. 9-10.

"It was really my call," Pool said. "As I talked to everybody involved in in finishing this thing up, I felt like we're probably going to need a couple of extra weeks. We could move in the 22nd, but I'm afraid we'd have issues with construction workers finishing up things."

He said that decision came in part because the transition to an entirely new campus already comes with its own set of issues.

"This is a totally different plant than what everybody's used to, and we have to teach them to operate that plant," Pool said. "For example, custodians will have to be trained on how to clean the carpets, teachers and other folks have to know where the light switches are. It sounds funny, I know, but it's true."

The new middle school and a practice gym at the high school - the result of a $19.9 million bond package approved in 2005 - both were built behind schedule. The middle school's completion date, originally Dec. 15, had been set for Jan. 23 for some time, pushed back due to unusually rainy weather in January and February and again in June and July, and also because of a shortage of brick masons.

Pool said giving contractors a couple of extra weeks just seemed like the wise choice.

"I just felt like we'd come way too far without any major issues other than weather, and I hate to just mess it up at the tail end," he said. "We're at that stage now where it's all the little details that make a lot of difference and I don't want them to rush through that and mess it up.

"We've waited this long - I guess a couple more weeks aren't going to kill us."