News
SAD
15 Facilities Committee preparing bond
Wants to upgrade all schools
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray-Members of the Facilities Committee, a sub-committee
of the SAD 15 Board, met last Thursday to hear a report
from PDT Architects regarding the status of the SAD
15 schools. The Facilities Committee also has formed
a "Facilities Upgrade and Renovation Committee"
whose charge is to create and implement a plan to
determine the scope of work for facilities upgrade
and renovations. That plan includes a bond which the
committee hopes will go the voters in November.
PDT had collected all the reports that have been completed
on the school facilities over the last five years,
and presented an overview of the scope of work that
would need to be done to remedy the existing problems
and head off others that are cropping up in the older
buildings. PDT Architect Lyndon Keck said that the
five school buildings range in age from 7 to 57 years
old, not counting the historic Pennell complex, which
is 125 years old.
District efforts to upgrade their schools over the
last three years have included a survey-referendum
asking the towns whether they want to keep all three
elementary schools or consolidate two of them, Russell
and Memorial. Consolidating them would have saved
considerable money but the community voiced strong
opposition to losing their two neighborhood schools
to one larger, consolidated school. Then the SAD applied
for Capital Improvement money through the State last
year but scored only 32 out of 100, with the top 11
applicants given funding. Now the SAD is looking to
create a bond to fix the schools. Facilities Chair
Peter Pinkerton is hoping this third try will be the
charm.
Over the last 5 years there have been six reports
assessing the buildings, including a space-needs assessment
of Russell and Memorial Schools conducted by HKTA
in December 1999, a PDT Architects study of Russell
and Memorial produced in 2000, a PDT Educational Visioning
Report completed in 2002, the Sewell Report, which
assessed existing infrastructure and then prioritized
problems into a 1-5 scale finished in April 2004,
a Building Summaries report, and the research conducted
by PDT for obtaining State Revolving Fund money completed
in December 2004.
Facilities Chair Peter Pinkerton is taking all the
information and formulating the Renovations Committee.
He has put forth an large-scale schedule that brings
the Committee's work to a conclusion in November with
the presentation of a facilities upgrade bond.
The SAD is applying for State Revolving funds and
will be submitting their application in mid-March.
The State will let the SAD know if their application
has been successful or not within 6-8 weeks.
Terry Towle, Director of Finance and Operations, said
that "The District is going to put everything
together to bring the schools up to where they should
be. For the priority ones and twos, there is an opportunity
to get state funding through Revolving Fund program.
If funded, that would reduce the amount necessary
for local taxpayers to pay." Otherwise it would
be all local funds to pay for the bond.
The Revolving Funds program is a pool of 30 million
dollars set aside by the State and intended for schools
that have desperate repair issues, such as the priority
ones and twos shown in the Sewell Report. Mr. Keck
said that in their previous report they found that
the 1948 wings at Memorial School were not suitable
for long term use.
The Revolving Funds program requires that that the
School Department create a plan that confirms that
the buildings would be used for at least ten years,
or the life of the bond, if awarded the money. "At
present, it is assured that both communities want
both their elementary schools," Mr. Keck said.
The Facilities Committee is working on finalizing
the long-range facilities plan.
The Committee will meet again on March 7.
How
old are the buildings?
Age of Buildings, From PDT Architects:
Dunn Elementary School: 1998. 7 years old
GNG Middle School: 1989. 16 years old
GNG High School: original building, 1962, additions
1972 & 1976. 39-43 years old
Russell Elementary School: original 1948, additions
1960, 1968. 37-57 years old
Memorial Elementary School: original 1948, addition
1960 & 1972. 37-53 years old
http://www.MonumentNews.com/2005/news/224/224a.shtml
