Ever since the groundbreaking ceremony in May, construction workers have been hard at work building the final step of making Freedom Area School District one campus. The ongoing process was put on hold due to the amount of rainfall we experienced this past summer but the process is finally starting to come together. “I guess it is fair to say that they are a little bit behind on schedule,” Freedom Area School District Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Fuller said “but it’s nothing that I don’t believe can’t be made up.”

With faculty and the community having high hopes for this building to be finished by next August, the construction workers are going to keep working to fix what they’re currently behind on.

“They are here Monday thru Friday 7-3:30,” Fuller said. With many of the workers staying later hours and even coming in occasionally on Saturdays, the final product of this building is going to be a huge milestone in the Freedom community.

This summer presented a challenge to the construction workers. Having constant rainfall made it difficult for them to be able to get the necessary work done. “When you go out there and its dust three inches deep,” Fuller said, “All of that dust turns into six inches of mud whenever it rains,” He even recalls a time when the workers had to stand around a cement truck to wait out the rain and lightning.

As for the construction thus far, Fuller says the process is about eight to 10 percent complete. And even with two schools merging into one, he stresses the fact that no teachers’ jobs will be cut. “We still expect to have five teachers in each grade level which is what we have now in kindergarten through eighth grade.” This statement is based on the current enrollment of the schools and could change at any time, need it be that more students enter a certain grade level, making another teaching position needed or that less students enter, which could cause for loss of a position.

But with this change comes one extremely positive change for both teachers and students. Instead of growing up in what seems like three different worlds from one another, Conway, Freedom and New Sewickley Township, students will now begin school together without the confusion that past students experienced entering the Middle School. Also teachers will be able to go “from 15 miles to 20 feet,” as Fuller states, when needing to get in contact with teachers from the other elementary school.

Even with the struggles that the construction has experienced thus far, the community will benefit heavily from it once it concludes in time for the 2015-2016 school year.