Stonington — With two large additions partially enclosed, residents are getting an idea of what a major portion of the $62 million expansion and renovation project at Deans Mill and West Vine Street Schools will look like.

While classes have been going on inside the existing buildings, the grounds of both schools have been turned into large construction sites with fencing, heavy equipment, large piles of dirt and two additions.

“The progress from where we were on Labor Day until now has been significant,” K-12 School Building Committee Chairman Rob Marseglia said after touring the schools on Wednesday. “We are right on schedule. We’re right where we want to be. The credit has to go to Gilbane (Construction Co.) and their teams at both sites.”

Marseglia said classroom and library partitions are going in now, as well as mechanical items such as duct work and conduits. Soon windows will be installed with the goal of making the building weather-tight and heated so crews can work comfortably through the winter.

The project also remains well within budget, with $4 million left in the contingency account despite spending more than anticipated on rock and PCB removal and blasting.

The plan to upgrade the two 50-year-old schools calls for the two additions to be done in time for school to begin in August 2018. At that point, students will move in to the new additions, which will contain classrooms, offices, 6,000-square-foot gyms and libraries, while crews renovate the cafeterias, restore the school grounds and complete work on larger parking areas. At Deans Mill, the wing facing the street will have to be demolished. Both schools will have air conditioning and will use gas heat instead of the current electric.

While all the work at West Vine Street is expected to be completed in February or March 2019, and Deans Mill a month or so later because of the demolition, Superintendent of Schools Van Riley will have to decide whether to make the transition in the middle of the school year or wait until the beginning of the 2019-20 school year.

The West Vine Street move will be complicated by the fact that third- and fourth-grade students from West Broad Street School are moving to the expanded West Vine, which now houses kindergarten through second grade. The 117-year-old West Broad facility then will be closed. In addition, fifth-graders at Mystic and Pawcatuck middle schools will be moved to the two elementary schools.

Riley said he understands teachers are excited about moving in to their new classrooms but he wants to minimize the disruption for students.

With the exception of the construction crews from Gilbane Building Co., the two people who are most intimately involved in the project each day are Deans Mill School Principal Jennifer McCurdy and her counterpart at West Vine Street, Alicia Sweet Dawe.

Both say the projects are going smoothly and have had minimal impact on the operations of their schools.

“I thought there would be a lot more disruption,” McCurdy said. “Some days are louder than others but everyone has acclimated. Sometimes I forgot they’re even back there.”

“As crazy as it sounds, it’s going very well,” Dawe added. “The kids have been great, the staff has been great and my project supervisor (from Gilbane), Cheryl Benn, has been phenomenal. Anything I’ve needed, she’s taken care of.”

She said Benn and Gilbane even held assemblies for each grade level and let students pose for photos on a small bulldozer.

“These kids are so resilient, they have not been fazed by it,” she said.

Because the school grounds are torn up, paved enclosed areas have been created for outdoor recess. At West Vine, the parent-teacher organization has purchased traditional lawn games for the students to play. And when the cafeterias are renovated, Riley said provisions will be made to provide some type of hot lunches for students who will have to eat in other areas of the school.

Riley said that because of the way the project is being constructed, the school system did not have to bring in portable classrooms, which saved a large amount of money.

In addition to overseeing the normal operations of their schools, McCurdy and Dawe have taken on the added responsibility of working daily with contractors and architects to make decisions on everything from furniture and tile design to the configuration of classrooms and parking.

“Sometimes I say, ‘I know a little more about construction than I want to know,’” McCurdy joked. She added it is nice to be able to implement upgrades she has seen work in other schools.

Marseglia said it makes sense for the principals to make such decisions. “You don’t want me and (committee members) Dan Oliverio and Bob Sundman picking out school furniture. What do we know about that?” he said.

Additionally, committees of staff members have been set up at each school to provide input on a host of issues. McCurdy said they are not just considering what the schools need now but what they will need a decade from now. For instance, she said, staff wanted flexible space to accommodate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) activities and the possibility of a larger-than-expected grade level.

For Riley, construction projects such as this are nothing new, as he oversaw several of them when he worked in Huntington Beach, Calif. “Safety is my big concern and making sure everyone is safety conscious,” he said, listing issues such as proper fencing, vehicle access and blasting as just some of the items that need to be considered.

He praised Gilbane, which also worked on the $39 million high school expansion and renovation project more than a decade ago, for being well-organized and keeping safety in mind.

Behind the scenes, the group responsible for the project is the K-12 School Building Committee, which comprises eight residents along with Board of Finance member June Strunk, Board of Education member Deborah Downie, Selectwoman Kate Rotella and former First Selectman George Crouse. They have been meeting twice a month for more than four years to plan and oversee the project.

“The groundwork we did over those four years was to make the construction go smoothly, which is what we’re seeing now,” Marseglia said.

In addition to Gilbane, he praised the work of DRA Architects and Collier’s International, the owner’s representative.

The one major challenge the committee faced was the discovery of PCB contamination in the original caulk used to seal doors, windows and concrete blocks. Some of the PCBs had leeched into concrete surfaces in very low amounts. Marseglia said someone would have to inhale or ingest some of the caulk to be affected.

Still, all the caulk is being removed and interior walls demolished. Exterior walls and columns that contain PCBs are being sealed with epoxy paint and then covered with sheet rock so as not to disturb the concrete.

The PCB work cost $2 million per school and has added a few extra months to the project.

“But it gives us a layer of protection,” Marseglia said.

j.wojtas@theday.com