LAKEVILLE — Despite an ongoing construction project, Assawompset School will open on time, Superintendent of Schools Alan Strauss assured the community at the Wednesday Aug. 23 meeting of the Freetown Lakeville Regional School Committee.

“I cannot reiterate that enough,’’ Strauss said. “The building will not be closed. There is no reason it can’t be open.’’

Windows and doors at the elementary school in Lakeville are being replaced through a project approved by Special Town Meeting voters in November 2022. The work is scheduled to be completed by Oct. 30, which Strauss said had always been the deadline.

Most of the windows will be in place, the superintendent said, before students start the school year Sept. 6. He said that 100 windows have already been replaced and he estimated an additional 75 will be completed by the first day of school.

Doors will be installed after the window work is done, Strauss said.

Classrooms regularly occupied by students have been the first priority for window replacement, he said. Rooms that are not regularly used by students _ such as the boiler room _ may not be completed by school’s start, he said. In those cases, temporary windows will be in place.

Air quality is routinely checked, Strauss said, and a major clean-up of the school will take place Labor Day weekend with both the contractor and school maintenance staff, he said.

Once school starts, the construction work will be done from 4 to 11 p.m. each night and on weekends, Strauss said. No one other than workers will be in the building during those times, he said. 

Students will not be in the building at any time when workers are on site, Strauss said.

Before-school programming will continue at Assawompset. After-school programming will move to Austin Intermediate School, with transportation provided.

The second floor of Assawompset, where students previously attended art and music classes, will be completed after the first floor area, because that is where the bulk of classes are held. 

Instead, the art and music teachers will teach out of first floor classrooms until the work is completed.

“Although it may not be most optimal, we will make it work to provide the arts with no restrictions at all,’’ Strauss and Assawompset Principal Bethany Pineault wrote in a joint message to the school community.

Other changes include the cancellation of the annual Popsicles on the Playground, due to “safety and logistical concerns,’’ Strauss and Pineault wrote.

The annual open house, traditionally held in September, will be scheduled instead for middle to late October, they wrote. The date and time have not yet been determined, they said. 

Concerns have been raised by some in the community about the conditions of the school when classes begin. Select board members have asked at several meetings whether a contingency plan will be in place. 

Strauss said school officials have been working with Building Commissioner Nate Darling and Fire Chief Michael O’Brien to review progress and ensure that the building is progressing and that conditions are acceptable.

Director of Facilities Greg Goodwin said the new look of the school will be “quite different.’’

The new windows will provide 50 percent more natural light, he said. “It looks like more than doors and windows’’ were installed, Goodwin said. “It looks like a renovation.’’ 

Teachers will be allowed into the building to begin preparing for the school year Aug. 31, Strauss told the committee.

Some in the community have questioned whether this will be enough time for teachers to prepare. Comments have been made that some teachers prepare starting three weeks before the school year begins.

That is a “falsehood,’’ Strauss responded. “The union wouldn’t allow that,’’ he said.

Welcoming teachers into the building a few days before the students fits in with the usual timetable, he said.