Carl Pillittieri, director of building and grounds, holds some of the new “Titan” turf in his hand. P-J photo by Katrina Fuller

Parents, teachers and students can look forward to improved facilities at a few Jamestown Public Schools District schools on Wednesday.

Students will return to classes that day, and those who attend Jefferson Middle School or Bush Elementary School will notice the differences. Also, those looking forward to playing sports at Strider Field will see various changes.

Carl Pillittieri, director of building and grounds, said the sports complex updates are exciting.

“We peeled off the old turf, which was an astro-turf, and the old shock pad,” Pillittieri said. “Then, we put down a filament turf, which has six pounds per square foot of this crumb rubber.”

The new field mocks actual grass, and lets rain water and melted snow percolate down through the field, enter an irrigation system and travel to the wetlands beneath the soccer field.

“This field is a turf, (and) it’s called ‘Titan,’ and this is exactly the same as what they have at (New Era Field),” Pillittieri said. “We also peeled off the track and put down a new track surface. So the whole complex has been upgraded. It’s been 16 years since it’s been upgraded.”

New this year, the field has been striped for soccer games because it now mocks a grass field.

“We have soccer games scheduled here for this year, too,” Pillittieri said.

Pillittieri said two baseball fields and two softball fields are also being re-worked in the complex.

“They haven’t been touched for years and years,” he said. “They’re being reworked so they drain properly.”

There are two capital projects going on in the district, he said. One at Bush Elementary School and one at Jefferson Middle School. Both are very large projects.

Randy Beckerink, clerk of the works, said at Jefferson, ductwork and heating and ventilating units have been replaced to upgrade the air quality capacity in two wings. During this phase, he said the cafeteria area has been improved to allow more seating and a secure vestibule was created at the main entrance.

Next year, the other two wings will have the same work done. A parking lot has also been rebuilt at the school.

At Bush, Beckerink said a lot of the project is heating and ventilation. A three classroom addition was put on the school that will be open on Wednesday for the first day of school.

“In that, it creates a new main office with a new, secure vestibule there as well,” he said. “Our parent drop off loop to nowhere now has a purpose.”

Beckerink said all heating and ventilation units in the classrooms have been replaced. He said there will be some renovations done on a second shift throughout the year.

Pillittieri said there has been a districtwide technology project going on at the same time, which included wireless Internet access system throughout each building that makes Internet faster and more efficient He said there were new projectors put in, as well as new document cameras and new data switches. There were some upgrades in speakers at Strider Field, as well.

Pillittieri said things have gone very well for both the Strider Field project and the Jefferson Middle School projects. However, the district did run into some problems at Bush School.

“We ran into some significant snags with a contractor becoming behind,” he said. “We had to take some measures to get ourselves back on track. Our construction staff has turned over a clean, safe building for the students and staff. The only difference is that the Bush School project will kind of bleed over into the school year, kind of nights and weekends. It should be done, but it’s not.”