Citizens hear critical needs

 A smaller, but still strong crowd of 83 attended the second of four community meetings discussing upgrades and renovations to the Red Oak School District’s buildings.

Parts of the meeting focused on what the buildings needed for critical repairs, and repairs that were not critical but rather a potential need.

Architect Daric O’Neal, of Alley Poyner Macchietto, once again served as the moderator of Wednesday’s meeting at the White Fair Building.

Mark Pfister of Boyd-Jones, an Omaha construction firm, focused on each building individually. He said repairs are needed at all buildings to keep them functional.

“These critical repair items are things that will have no effect on what the buildings look like. It’s not a face lift. It’s just work needing done to keep the buildings in operation for years to come,” Pfister said.

Critical needs at Webster Elementary included Americans with Disabilities Act compliance renovations to the bathrooms and sidewalks and an HVAC update. The estimated cost range for the project was $475,000-$575,000.

Pfister said the estimates were strictly budgetary, and did not reflect any designs.

“They’re really just to give a rough order of magnitude on what’s involved for costs on the projects in each building,” he said.

Inman Primary, a newer building, had fewer critical needs, according to Boyd Jones. Projects noted were uneven pavement and plumbing issues. The estimatcost range of repairs at Inman was $167,900 to $205,000.

Washington Intermediate’s range of project costs was $873,800 to $1,067,800. Like Webster, Washington had noted ADA deficiencies and also needed work done to the HVAC system.

The middle school, which is the oldest building in the district, had the second highest cost estimate for critical needs repairs, with an estimated range of $2,546,100 to $3,111,600.

“The building needs an HVAC renovation, and it’s higher than the other projects because it’s a bigger building. Fire alarms and cabling is another big item, and it’s also not ADA compliant and has more bathrooms,” Pfister said.

Red Oak High School’s critical needs projects had the highest estimates – $4,035,800 to $4,932,400. Once again, the high costs were attributed to needed HVAC improvements.

“Most of the cost is the steam piping system. There will be work done to replace the boiler that will reflect in these costs, but none of that reflects on the cost to repair the steam piping. Again, it would require removal of portions of the ceiling which drives up the costs. Also, it would need the installation of an elevator for ADA accessibility,” Pfister advised.

O’Neal said the goal of the information was to inform the public of the projects that were priority needs, regardless of future dreams and ideas.

“These are things that are going to have to happen within the next 10 years at these buildings in order to keep them all running,” O’Neal said.

Based on all the numbers, the total combined cost for all the work would be around $13 million.

During public comment, Red Oak resident Mary Gohlinghorst questioned why if the needs were critical, and had been for so long, why they had been let go.

O’Neal said the term “critical” reflected equipment that was predicted to come to the end of its life.

“We know we have a boiler at the high school that has been maintained incredibly for the last 48 years, but it’s expired, and is being replaced as part of this process. Other items on the list are those that may get another three to seven years of life if they remain continually maintained. The reality is that it should be budgeted within the next 10 years as an item to be replaced,” O’Neal said.

He added there are many things that are affected with some of these projects, which may open the building up for other projects.

“Once you get into a ceiling, you’re incurring a lot of cost. That may be the time to look at sprinkler piping going in at that time, or fixing plumbing issues. That’s why we’re trying to get a handle on the critical costs, and examine what the next steps are for improving spaces and classroom configurations once workers get into those areas,” O’Neal said.

Gohlinghorst also questioned some of the maintenance issues she noted during the facility tours, particularly at the high school.

“The only bathroom where all the faucets worked was next to the high school caferia. In the locker rooms, there was only one faucet that worked in both locker rooms,” Gohlinghorst said.

O’Neal said part of the reason the faucets were in that condition was because they were part of an earlier project for replacement for a prior ADA project at the high school.

“There was not going to be money spent on faucets and lavatories being replaced if they were going to be ripped out later and replaced due to accessibility issues as part of that plan at the time,” O’Neal said.

Red Oak resident and former school board member Roger Carlson added there was only around $600,000 budgeted for maintenance and other projects for the school year, which sometimes left little room for projects.

At the next meeting, O’Neal said they would discuss past maintenance costs of the building for the past five years, costs of utilities, and operational costs for staffing each of the buildings.

Also during the next meeting, O’Neal plans to discuss combining classes among the buildings to spark conversation.

“For example, what does Inman look like if you add fourth and fifth grades to the campus. What will happen if you combine Webster and Washington. What happens if you add classes to the middle school or the high school. There are a lot of options at the middle school,” O’Neal said.

Based on public comment from February’s meeting, eight focus groups emerged with the highest interest to community members: Financial, learning spaces, STEAM, activities, behind the scenes, community partnerships, IT, and awareness.

Members will be set for a steering committee, which will receive the information from the focus groups and prioritize based on district needs. After giving a breakdown of the responsibilities of each focus group, interested audience members were given the opportunity to choose their focus groups after the meeting closed. 

The next public facility meeting is scheduled April 20 at 6 p.m. at the Gold Fair Building at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.