Moldy and toxic hall at Tam High to be replaced

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Moldy and toxic hall at Tam High to be replaced

Gollan

Sept 15, 2005

Novato, California

http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_3031502

Tamalpais High School's beleaguered Keyser Hall, abruptly shut at

the start of the school year due to toxic mold, will be replaced for

$15.3 million.

The move is part of a plan that the Tamalpais Union High School

District Board unanimously embraced this week.

Tuesday's decision means the district will spend $2.7 million to

raze Keyser, which has 18 rooms, including 12 classrooms serving 400

students. It is the district's largest building.

In addition, the money will cover the cost of an environmental

review of the construction area and architectural plans for a new

building. The cost of the work will be covered by the district's

$121 million bond measure, approved in 2001.

Trickling water from the Mill Valley hills behind Tamalpais High

School most likely spawned mold concentrations up to four times the

federally-recommended limits in the building, officials have said.

The discovery prompted Tam administrators to postpone the start of

school for three days.

" Tests indicated that there is a pool of water outside the retaining

walls from the hill that is leaking underneath the floor into

Keyser, " said Arvo Toukonen, the district's assistant superintendent

of administrative services. " To fix that, we have to tear it down. "

The district has not decided how to cover the cost of replacing the

building - estimated at $12.6 million. However, on Oct. 25, Tam

trustees are to decide whether to ask voters for another bond

measure to pay for construction projects excluded from the

district's initial bond list, which district officials have

estimated could cost up to $85 million.

Some trustees, however, sought to distance themselves from another

tax initiative, cautioning that their initial commitment of $2.7

million to Keyser did not necessarily mean they would hit up voters

for another bond.

" I don't think that if we pass this measure now, we are inexorably

on the road to a bond issue, " said Bob Walter, president of the

Board of Trustees. " We're between a rock and a hard place and we

have to go forward. "

But Toukonen predicted the district would end up proposing another

bond, considering the district's limited prospects of paying for

construction projects with state funding or district-owned property

that could be sold.

" It is a question of when and how much, rather than if, " Toukonen

said.

Although design work on Keyser will begin immediately, the building

will be demolished next summer.

Construction would not be finished until August 2008.

Renovating Keyser Hall would be more expensive than replacing it,

Toukonen said.

In August, a district consultant collected samples that included

several types of molds, but most troubling was the prevalence of

penicillium/aspergillus, which is linked to colds, respiratory

ailments and asthma.

Classes that would have been held in Keyser are being spread between

16 to 18 portable buildings at an annual cost of about $6,000 each.

Keyser was among several projects excluded from the district's 2001

bond.

In May, the district scrapped plans for Keyser's $6 million

overhaul - later revised to $9 million because of escalating

construction costs - and instead resorted to basic repairs such as

painting.

The district spent $55,000 of the projected $97,000 in repairs this

summer before the building was closed.