Teacher assistant Amy Minick, left, talks with Meg Edwards and her son Liam, 5, during an open house Thursday at Carey Elementary School. Liam starts kindergarten tomorrow.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

NEWPORT –– Because the School Department has been slow to decide the long-term future of its aged elementary buildings, parents and students will find some major changes when classes begin tomorrow.

To comply with state fire codes, cafeterias and libraries in the basements of three of the schools have been relocated to upper levels, while separate space for music and art has been lost. The move has resulted in smaller libraries, more cramped classrooms, restricted gym hours and mobile “art carts” instead of art classrooms.

“I think everyone understands the situation. It’s not a great situation, but everyone is trying to work together to make the best out of a bad situation,” said Supt. John Ambrogi.

Midway through the last academic year, the School Department learned that the basements of Cranston Calvert, Coggeshall and Carey Schools were not in compliance with state fire codes because they lacked sprinklers.

The School Committee had spent several years discussing what to do about the old buildings and was working toward a “fewer, newer schools” scenario under which some buildings would be closed and the remainder modernized. Ambrogi said the fire marshal agreed to let the basement be used for the rest of the school year in anticipation that a bond referendum would be passed for school construction.

But the state Department of Education rejected financing the School Committee’s preferred plan while the committee resisted accepting the less expensive plan that the state indicated it was willing to fund. At this point, no bond referendum is scheduled, the committee has not voted on what to do next and the fall election could change the makeup of the committee.

In the meantime, said Ambrogi, the School Department had to comply with the state fire marshal’s order.

“The fire marshal let us [continue] through the end of last year because moving in the middle of the year would have been a major disruption,” he said. But for the coming year, “we had to move the cafeterias and libraries and music rooms out of the basement and move them onto the first floor in those three buildings,” Ambrogi said.

Cafeteria tables, serving stations and milk coolers were moved into regular classrooms. At Cranston Calvert, two classrooms are now cafeteria space. The gymnasium at Coggeshall will serve as the cafeteria, shutting down its use for physical education for part of the day. The libraries have moved into classrooms and art instruction will be given in regular classrooms.

“The library tends to suffer in situations like that,” Ambrogi said, adding, “many times you have to go with art-on-a-cart.”

The relocations, he said, have “caused a substantial disruption. We are losing classroom space and it’s going to be more difficult to have the students come in and out of their lunchroom setting.”

The School Department is awaiting the results of a $50,000 engineering study on what work will be necessary to bring the elementary buildings into compliance with the fire code. The study will include an estimate of what it would cost to install sprinklers in the basements of the school buildings.

rsalit@projo.com