By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
As Nick Kent of Plunkett Raysich Architects presented the 125-page report of the initial Burlington Area School District facilities study, he made sure to emphasize the district had options.
During Monday’s preliminary report to the Burlington Area School Board Buildings, Grounds and Transportation, he stressed, was just that – preliminary.
“It’s important to take stock of what the facts are,” Kent explained.
The report outlines everything from cosmetic to critical repairs, remodeling and remediation needed at all of the district’s schools – the newest of which is 15 years old.
The report also included a staff survey of opinions on their workspaces, as well as a capacity report on each of the buildings.
Not surprisingly, the newest schools – Winkler Elementary and Burlington High School, opened in 1999 and 2000, respectively – have the least amount of problems, though both are showing wear in a few places.
The biggest challenge the district is looking at is Karcher Middle School. Portions of the building are from the original school built in the 1920s, and the school’s heating plant – two steam boilers – was installed in 1956.
Those boilers, along with air handling units, are at or beyond their useful life, there is still asbestos tile in places in the building and the majority of the outdoor athletic facilities – including the athletic field and its bleachers – are essentially unusable.
The district’s other three elementary schools – Cooper, Waller and Lyons – as well as Dyer Intermediate fall in between the two extremes, with everything from poor outdoor lighting to old windows needing to be replaced. Single-pane windows also need to be addressed, as does paving at every school site.
What Kent stressed, though, after running through a few highlights of the report, is that he and the firm understand the district needs to have priorities established.
The school space study also showed that most of the schools are operating at less than target capacity, and initial results of the staff survey showed parking and traffic patterns to both be major concerns.
All that, along with other staff survey results, will be analyzed next. Kent explained that each item would be assigned a priority from Level 1 – the most important – to Level 3.
Then, Plunkett Raysich will conduct a brainstorming session to come up with ideas of how to deal with the various problems.
That session, Kent said, will be designed to hear all solutions – not just the probable ones. The hope is to have all the solutions listed, and then eliminate where needed.
“We want to intentionally put out options that may not work,” Kent explained. “Someone, somewhere, will ask.”
From there, the goal is to create a master plan so, as Kent said, everyone is “singing from the same hymnal.”
“It’s important to take this step by step,” he said.
The next step in the process is expected to be completed in January.
-
-
-
-
-