With students and staff away, summer in the schools is filled with the sounds of drills and hammers rather than teachers teaching. That’s because teams doing school improvement and maintenance project have just two months between graduation and the school starting dates to finish all of their tasks.

Each year it is a scramble to try to complete each task on the list before school re-opens in late August.

This summer in Westbrook, one major project will touch most district classrooms, gathering spaces, and office spaces: replacement of the district’s antiquated telephone system and network backbone components.

Superintendent of Schools Pat Ciccone recently reported to the Board of Education on the district’s planning and execution of this project.

Ciccone said it began in the spring when Digital Back Office, a pre-qualified firm on the State of Connecticut’s bid list, conducted an assessment of the school buildings’ existing wiring and network capability. This assessment was to determine the condition of the existing network’s backbone and components and assess if any could be re-used.

The next step was to design an improved replacement system that would include features the district identified as important.

Components for the new telephone system’s backbone network switches were ordered through Advanced Corporate Networking (a firm on the state bid list that also is on the list for providing Hewlett Packard equipment). The new phone system’s switching equipment, once installed and operational, will get back-up power in emergencies from the high school’s solar photovoltaic power system. This ensures that even in a power outage, the district’s new voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) phone system will continue to operate without interruption.

Tasks associated with installing the new phone system in the district’s school buildings were delayed until summer to avoid disruptions to learning during the school day.

The new VOIP phone system is a cloud-based product selected from Broadview Networks’ Office Suite product line that will rely on the district’s network and wiring.

“Over 100 handsets will be ordered in the following weeks, [with] installation and go-live scheduled to be achieved by Aug. 22,” wrote Ciccone.

Other summer work projects underway at Daisy Ingraham Elementary School are to repair damage done by water and ice during the winter months. Columns damaged by water and ice expansion need repair. In addition, the source of the water, ice dams on the roof, will also be addressed.

“New roofing (shingles) will be applied to the existing roof, in the area of the overpass to allow for better and more strategic water run-off to prevent ice dams from forming in the future at a cost of approximately $1,500,” wrote Ciccone.

Other projects include filling a large sinkhole that developed in the Daisy parking lot during spring recess. Although it was filled at the time, it needed to settle before the surface could be repaved. Quotes for that work area being sought now for summer paving. Also planned is the replacement of Daisy carpeting with new floor tiles. Installation of the new flooring will be done this summer.