Mold cleanup to go before voters

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http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/03/21/10385.php

Mold cleanup to go before voters

Ray Hagar

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

3/21/2002 11:03 pm

J.Tolda/RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

Mike describes how water runs down the wall at Bordewich-Bray

Elementary School, drips onto the wood under the building and wicks its way

back up into the walls where mold then grows. is the director of

operations for the Carson City School District.

Related Media and Files

A worker enters an area being cleaned of toxic mold ...

Officials of the Carson City School District said that they are concerned

about their chances that voters will approve a $3.7 million bond to replace

wooden classrooms tainted with toxic mold at Bordewich-Bray Elementary

School.

The bond issue - set to go on the Nov. 5 election ballot - comes after

Carson City voters approved an $18 million bond sale in 2000 to finance

safety and maintenance improvements at most of the schools in the district.

" The last bond issue passed because it was real broad based, " said Mike

, the school district's director of operations. " There was something

in that bond for every school site and the public recognized that it was

time to put some money into those facilities.

" This is a different situation, " said. " This is only for one site

and people might say, 'Why did the school district let mold grow in those

facilities anyway?' There may be some negative feeling about that. "

Yet remains positive.

" I'm going to give it a 70 percent chance (of passing). "

The Carson City school board approved plans for the bond at their meeting

last Tuesday. Demolition of the wooden structures is scheduled to begin this

summer. Five of the wooden classrooms have been vacated already, causing a

space crunch at the school, said Vice Principal Beckwith.

" We literally have someone in a closet, a big walk-in closet, " Beckwith

said. " The speech pathologist meets with one, two or three students at a

time. We're cramped but everybody has just been great about it, meeting the

kids' needs and doing whatever we have to do. "

If the bond measure were to pass, the classrooms would be replaced with a

concrete-and-brick building.

Voters' current tax rate will not go up if the bond is passed, said

. Yet he fears that voters may be upset with the school district and

vote against the bond because the wooden structures were built cheaply in

1990. Cost-saving measures eventually allowed ground water and runoff to

seep into the wooden walls, causing the mold to grow.

" In 1990, we didn't have enough money to do all the things we wanted to do, "

said. " If we had some money to do something as cheap as we could

and still create learning space, we did it. "

If the bond fails, the school district will purchase portable classrooms for

about $80,000. Yet Beckwith said a permanent building is needed so the

school can cut down time transporting children from one building to another.

The school's campus is spread across King Street, making it necessary to

spend a lot of time transporting students. A new building would be attached

to the main school and drastically reduce travel time for students.

" We have first and second graders who literally walk blocks to go to lunch

everyday, " Beckwith said. " They'll have to walk three or four blocks to use

the computers or see a counselor. We lose time with those kids, gathering

them, getting them dressed (for the cold weather) to drudge them blocks

away. Then we turn around and do the same thing coming back on a daily

basis. We are losing, conservatively, 90 minutes of contact time with them. "

The vote on the bond won't have been taken when students return to school

next September. Because all the wooden buildings will be torn down by then,

the school plans to rent space at the old St. Catholic Church, now

owned by the Brewery Arts Center. The space at the church building will be

needed anyway, since it would take 21/2 years to design and construct a

permanent building, said.

The church building sits just yards away from the school, across

Street and is large enough to house the school's library and smaller

classes.

Plans also call for about 30 students to be transferred to Fritsch

Elementary or Gleason Elementary until the space problems at Bordewich-Bray

can be resolved.

" On a less than permanent basis, I think we'll be OK, knowing there is an

end result for us, " Beckwith said.