Needed building repairs mulled

All the elementaries and the high school lack adequate heating and air conditioning, an analysis of D21-owned buildings found. Classrooms can’t be adequately heated or cooled.

The analysis said that “despite the work of a very active maintenance team…core systems are failing,” mostly owing to outdated equipment. Heating and cooling systems and plumbing are either entirely corroded or in major need of replacement or repair. Much of the electrical equipment is past its useful life and technology upgrades are needed in all schools. Structural systems are generally in good condition but need seismic updates to meet state code.

But school shootings across the U.S. have caused many school districts and their patrons to put their top emphasis on building security, and that has been a priority across schools in Oregon, too, said Richard Higgins of BLRB Architects, which is facilitating the long range facilities planning process for North Wasco County School District 21.

The participants were attending a long-range facilities planning session last Tuesday, which was open to the public. The meeting drew about 30 people, a mix of district staff, school board members and the public.

Attendees were divided into five groups and asked to rank the order of repairs they would do at each school building over the next 10 years. The nine categories ranged from security and learning environment to technology, student capacity, and instructional aids.

It would cost more to do “learning environment” related repairs at each of the schools than it would be to do security upgrades, analysis showed.

At Chenowith, for example, repairs to learning environments would cost $4.4 million, and security would be $1 million. At The Dalles High School, the figures are $13.5 million and $1.9 million, respectively.

BLRB Architects will take the rankings produced by the five groups who participated in the exercise, and look for common threads and bring that back to the next long-range planning meeting, which is set for Tuesday, Dec. 10, 6-8 p.m., at The Dalles Middle School library.

Higgins encouraged the groups to focus only on what ranking they would provide to each category of work at each school, without consideration of cost.

One citizen said that not having consideration for cost is what caused the school district’s recent bond to fail. “I feel there’s no consideration of looking at the reality of maybe we can repair, refurbish,” said Lori Stiles.

“We’re not suggesting shoot for the moon,” Higgins said. He said the groups could choose to just do safety and security at all the schools. “Schools all over the state are doing this. That’s not the whole enchilada.”

Earlier in the meeting, Higgins reviewed condition assessment data that showed most of the schools were in poor enough shape that industry standards indicated it made more sense to replace than to repair them. A value over 30 percent is in “poor condition” and Chenowith Elementary, Colonel Wright Elementary, the high school and Wahtonka Community School all scored at 30 percent or more. Dry Hollow was 27.8 percent and The Dalles Middle School was at just 1.6 percent.

That data was derived using an industry standard formula, and a construction cost sheet that is provided by the state and updated yearly, Higgins said.

Based on evaluations, needed repairs at school facilities totaled $70 million. Replacement of them all was $257 million, Higgins said.

But spending $70 million on repairs would only replace existing failed systems with the same system. “It won’t be different, it will just all work,” Higgins said.

The buildings were all rated on an educational adequacy scale of 1-3, with one being inadequate, two being marginally adequate and three being adequate. Wahtonka Community School was the lowest, with a rating of 1.2. Colonel Wright Elementary was 1.3, The Dalles High School 1.4, Dry Hollow Elementary was 1.7, and the middle school, the district’s newest building, was at 2.6.

Building staff were asked to provide the adequacy information by rating each building in eight areas.

The long-range facilities planning the district is doing was called for by the state, which wants to get a handle on facilities needs in Oregon’s schools.

The state will pay for the planning process, and completing a 10-year facilities plan is necessary to qualify for state grants for facilities work. The grants are only available if local money is approved by voters as a match to the grant.

North Wasco County School District 21 would qualify for a $4 million grant.

Superintendent Candy Armstrong cautioned that repairs would not qualify for grants because the repairs would not last as long as the term of bond repayment.

All the schools are at or over capacity, and they either have modular classrooms or teach students off-campus, like the high school does.

While the middle school has five special education classrooms, all of the elementaries and high school were built before that was a consideration in education. One audience member noted that 30 years ago autism was diagnosed in one in 200 kids and now it is found in one in 75 kids.