WINSLOW — A $2.4 million expansion of Winslow Elementary School that adds needed classrooms, office space and bathrooms is scheduled to be completed in about another week, school officials said Tuesday.

The two-story expansion will be done on time and within budget. The cost was covered by federal pandemic relief money intended to allow for social distancing in schools.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” Winslow Public Schools Superintendent Peter Thiboutot said of the funding. “We needed the space.”

Conditions became cramped at the 87,300-square-foot school in 2021 when sixth-graders were incorporated following the closure of Winslow’s junior high school building in 2019. The school reopened in 2020 in a new building but only for seventh- and eighth-graders.

Before adding the sixth-grade class, enrollment in the elementary school usually hovered around 480 students, Principal Erica Gower said Tuesday. Enrollment this past year was 546, she said.

The 3,900-square-foot expansion adds the space needed to accommodate that influx of older students: four large classrooms, two smaller office spaces, and two bathrooms.

South Portland-based Ledgewood Construction Co. broke ground on the project last August and on Tuesday school officials praised Ledgewood’s ability to secure needed materials and get the project completed on schedule.

Shelley Phillips, director of maintenance at Winslow and Vassalboro public schools, said during a tour of the school Tuesday that the new wing is cost-effective.

The wing has energy efficient lighting that adjusts according to the amount of daylight outside, and on sunny days will use less electricity, Phillips said. Rooms all have thermal windows designed to reduce heat transference, as well as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, Phillips said. The wing is also compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

While construction is mostly finished, Phillips said there are a couple final touches, such as installing a few more doors, that will probably be done within the week.

School officials haven’t yet dedicated the new rooms for a specific purpose, but Gower said that they could be used as classrooms or as multipurpose space for support sessions, guest presentations, speech and language therapy, pre-kindergarten education and more.

“It will give us options that we don’t have currently,” the principal said.

Gower said that much of the school’s extracurricular support or enrichment programming this past year was held in the back of noisy classrooms or in hallways.

“I’m very excited for the new school year to begin,” she said. “I’m excited to have an answer when people ask what space they can use.”

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