By Jennifer Eisenbart
EDITOR
To put the Burlington Area School District school buildings in perspective, look at the old high school, what is now Nettie Karcher Middle School.
Gary Olsen, Director of Buildings and Grounds for BASD, said that building was state of the art for its time when it was built in 1924 as Burlington High School.
“Today, it’s 90 years old and it’s had a lot of wear and tear,” said Olsen.
The bond issue for that school – once it failed at first and had the swimming pool removed from the plan – was $200,000. The school has gone through several renovations and expansions.
In comparison, what is now called the Alternative High School – the old “tin shed” – was built in 1973, and the bond issue was for the same amount.
Those numbers put into perspective the district’s facilities issues. The district currently has nine buildings in use as schools and the administration building, which range in age from 1857 (the old Lincoln School that is the administrative complex) to the “new” high school, built in 2000.
“What we call the new high school is 14 years old, and going on 15,” Olsen said.
Olsen and BASD Superintendent Peter Smet talked Tuesday about why the district is looking at a long-term facilities plan, and what they hope that plan will address.
So, what is the district to do? Try a new configuration of which grades go in which school? Close a school? Combine two schools? Any of the above? All of the above? None of the above?
“A bunch of things have been brought up. They haven’t even been studied yet,” Smet explained. “That’s the purpose for the study.
“No determinations have been made,” he added. “It would be premature to come to any conclusions.”
A bit of history
Back in the early 1990s, the Burlington Area School District did its latest round of facility planning.
It established what grades would be in the elementary schools, Dyer Intermediate, what would be the new middle school – Karcher Middle School – and, of course, building the new high school.
The close-to $30 million referendum passed in November 1997, and plans went into effect in 1998.
In 2002, the district addressed athletic facilities and additions to the auditorium at BHS.
“Throughout that time, we’ve always had a five-year maintenance plan,” Smet said. “What we need to repair and remodel and fix.”
In the fall of 2006, two groups – Johnson Controls and Siemens – came in to look at building upgrades, including automation and HVAC work.
The district chose Siemens. There was a large study, and the district chose what projects to do. Smet explained that the work accelerated the district’s five-year plan, and there are still three years left to pay off that work, which came to $2.1 million.
“That was in 2006, and now it’s 2014,” the superintendent said. “Now is the time we need to re-look at, re-assess and re-study our facilities needs.”
Olsen said that work is being completed on an as-needed basis, but an overall plan was needed in order to determine where best to put the money for improvements.
“In aging facilities, you have multiple things,” said Olsen, who pointed out that everything from windows, doors, floors, classroom cabinets, door frames and even parking lots need to be evaluated – not to mention HVAC upgrades and lighting.
The study
Smet said the district is looking at a number of points in setting up a facilities study.
Among them:
• Determine student population and population trends with a demographics study;
• Review grade configurations at schools and educational needs;
• Determine what buildings will best serve the needs going forward;
• Determine what building maintenance and improvements need to be done to those buildings; and
• Address aging building needs.
Olsen said work has been done as needed – for example, the high school tennis courts were set to be resurfaced beginning Wednesday, and a broken condensation pipe at the middle school was fixed earlier this year.
“We’ve been addressing things timely,” said Olsen, but he quickly added that the studies needs to be undertaken.
The reason? Much of the work done on the current buildings was done before 1970s. When Waller Elementary School was built in 1955, “chalk was the No. 1 tool in the classroom,” Olsen.
The core of the original high school is still in use at Karcher.
“It’s where the electrical service comes in,” Olsen said.
Cooper was built in 1968, and the only addition was an elevator placed in the building in the 1990s. Other schools were built in the 1950s and 1960s, with few additions or renovations.
What needs to be done? “All of that will hopefully be driven by the study,” Olsen said.
Who’s studying
So far, the district has brought in Scherrer-Nexus and the Peter Scherrer Group to make their pitches to handle the study for the district.
The Peter Scherrer Group presented last week, and said it would charge $25,000 for the study. It would also help set up the construction process if asked.
Scherrer-Nexus representatives said they would provide in-depth study and serve as construction manager for any projects for a fee. However, if the district chose not to go with any of its recommendations, it would face a walk-away fee of close to $50,000.
And the Wisconsin Association of School Boards will present its facilities planning service Monday. The district will find out the cost at that time.
Any way you look at it, Smet said, the work needs to be done.
“I think it’s the responsible thing to do,” said Smet, who likened the work to fixing an aging home.
“We don’t have an option of doing nothing.”
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