School District’s New Bond Proposal for “80s Buildings” Only

By Margie Doyle

A 20-year, $11.9 million bond to make the “Middle School buildings” — all the flat-roofed buildings — safe, efficient, and integrated is being posed to Orcas Island School District voters in the November election.

This bond will finance essential renovations to siding, plumbing, heating and ventilation, seismic retrofitting and light systems and will integrate site work and construction on a new Career and Tech Ed (CTE) building to the north of the “Old Gym” in the center of campus.

The bond proposal was approved by the school board at its July meeting to pay for  essential work to the rooms adjoining the back of the high school that currently house the woodshop and middle school classrooms, the library/OASIS classrooms, and the “cafeteria” building that also houses more middle school classrooms, the home ec room, offices and the computer server room.

In the past two years, similar work has been done  to the elementary school’s plumbing and heating/ventilation systems with an energy grant, matched by the community; and  to the high school with the boost of a million-dollar grant obtained through the efforts of the OISD school board with State Senator Kevin Ranker.

OISD Board Member Janet Brownell has said, “With the matching grant [of $100,000 pledged by the community and backed by Marilyn Anderson], the [Maintenance and Operations] levy and million dollars [awarded in the capital grant by the state], we’ve done a lot of due diligence in lowering the burden to taxpayers.”

Now, however, a more integrated approach is needed for the Middle School buildings, as the “piecemeal” approach provided through previous grants is not adequate to the job. To continue to address one project at a time would mean the buildings would need to be torn apart two or three times to repair the plumbing, the electricity, the access, the heating and other separate elements of essential refurbishing.

“The only thing, the cost effective thing,  is to do it holistically,” said Clyde Duke, local builder, Fire and Rescue Commissioner and a member of the Orcas Building Professionals Group, which was formed out of the “Way Forward” meetings coordinated by Fred Klein.  “The bond costs make this the right time, and we have a good plan.”

“This is a whole new project, a whole new bond,” says OISD Superintendent Barbara Kline. “Some of the things we addressed with grants, and some things have been removed from the 2010 and 2011 bonds. But we are going in a new direction and addressing the most critical needs — the 80s buildings. From the Builders’ Group, we have gotten consensus on what needs to be done; what we believe the community will step up and support.

“We are comfortable that this is an objective that can be met.”

Butch Reifert of Mahlum Architects, an Orcas Island resident, has offered much of his work on the OISD  rebuilding project for free, and has served on the Building Professionals Team.  Reifert counters the expectation that the “80s buildings” should have held up better by bringing up the image of  500 school-age kids walking through your living room or offices for eight hours every day for the past 30 years.

“Maintenance is a challenge,” says Duke. The Orcas Building Professionals Group, when asked to identify the most critical needs in school maintenance, targeted the flat-topped 80s buildings’ safety, educational and efficiency shortfalls, and proposed resolving seismic, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance; fire suppression/fire walls, heating and ventilation, energy efficiency, interior and exterior wall systems and roofing modernization.

The Building Professionals also recommended budgeting for bond requests to cover additional site preparation costs for the new CTE building and additional glazing to the windows, and improvements to student drop off and pick up traffic processes.

The builders, architects, maintenance engineers in the group — Glen Monson, Ron Wallace, George Larson, John Campbell, David Kau, Fred Klein, Mark Padbury, Burke Thomas, Dave Rusillo, Jonathon Loop, David Will, Dwight Guss, Justin Paulsen, David Johnson, Prescott Jones, Bill Trogden, Clyde and April Duke and Butch Reifert — advocated that long-service-life and easier-maintenance equipment and materials be used.

“The challenge in maintenance is to think strategically to simplify, make more manageable and reduce operating costs,” said Duke.

The bond proposal on the November ballot would be in effect for 20 years at a 3.97 percent  net interest cost and would pay:

• for improvements for health, safety, accessibility and energy purposes including fire, earthquake, lighting and roofing considerations;
• for renovations to meet educational specifications including  wall demotions and new wall construction, new finishes, electrical, communications and plumbing;
• for new construction (the CTE building), including site preparation, framing, roofing, siding, ceiling, flooring and window installation.

Bond passage would be followed by specific design work and construction, with the process expected to take between 18 months and two years. The existing footprint of the buildings would be used, with only the CTE building being new construction. OISD Superintendent Barbara Kline theorizes that staging the remodel would involve site preparation and construction of the CTE building first; then Middle School students could move there while the cafeteria-classroom work is proceeding.

“We have the credibility from the elementary and high school improvements; the problems with the 80s buildings still exist and we have to figure out how to get them fixed,” Kline said.

A public Bond Committee has been formed with Patricia Slabaugh, Wally Gudgell, Madie Murray,  Janet Brownell, Lisa Bronn, Kate Long, Cathy Ferran, Deb Jones,  Clyde Duke and Velma Doty. A website for the bond effort is at: www.orcasforhealthysafeschools.com