School facilities need work

Sisters School facilities need some work over the next few months.

A blue ribbon committee of 18 staff and citizens, including contractors and architects, spent six months identifying needs and wants, and putting together a list of priorities, which was presented by Facilities Task Force Chair Don Hendrick at the Sisters School Board's July meeting.

The board deferred acting on the list of priorities immediately, while the board tries to get a firm handle on the district's financial picture as stagnant enrollment tightens the budget. But the board promised that the task force's work wouldn't simply gather dust.

"It's a team of people with credibility coming forward," board chair Christine Jones told The Nugget. "I feel confident that technically the reasons (for selection of projects and priorities) are solid."

One priority which will be acted upon quickly is fixing the air conditioning system in the high school computer lab.

"It doesn't cool the room down to where it should be cooled," said district facilities manager Leland Bliss. "When you put 30 computers and 30 kids into that room, the heat load is huge. We just can't mechanically cool it under 80 degrees."

Bliss has been working with the system's designer, Interface Engineering of Portland, to determine why the system isn't working well enough and how to fix it.

Engineers were to test the system last week and change some airflow settings to see if that will do the trick. If it does not, the system will have to be altered or replaced before school starts in September.

"We need to get it done," Bliss said. "You've got classroom temperatures in the 80s. It's hard to teach kids in those kinds of conditions."

The facilities priority list includes 16 items ranging from upgrading fire alarm systems to installing a streetlight for the crosswalk leading to the football field to updating asbestos abatement plans. The total price tag is an estimated $69,841, though Bliss notes that some estimates are outdated. Some costs could go up, but some items may be taken care of at no cost, so the nearly $70,000 estimate is considered quite rough.

Tighter estimates will be obtained once the district decides on priorities.

The task force's report came after months of study that began last January. The committee looked at projected enrollment, the size of current school facilities and projections for future facilities and identified problem areas.

"We went through lists and lists of items that have been around the district for three-four years that people felt they needed," Bliss said. "Some of them were wish list items."

The task force narrowed things down to necessities and prioritized them in terms of urgency, with the computer room air conditioning at the top of the list.

The district still has substantial funds for facilities projects obtained through the issuance of $2.1 million in Full Faith and Credit obligations. The bulk of the funds have already been spent on the Sisters Elementary School roof, classroom remodeling at the middle school and an elementary school modular classroom.

According to board chair Jones, the district has about $335,000 left after debt service, enough to cover the cost of the current priority list. However, she noted, having the money doesn't mean the district has to spend the money. A portion or all of that money could be used to pay down debt.

"We don't have to spend it," she said. "We could effectively return it (through debt repayment)."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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