Summer work
Ontario School District utilizes annual break to finish key projects

By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 10:58 AM PDT

Four Seasons Roofing employees work on various aspects of the new roof they are installing at Ontario High School, which is the biggest capital improvement project taking place in the district this summer.

ONTARIO — While school’s out for summer in the Ontario School District, capital improvement projects and other smaller fixer-uppers are keeping OSD Operations Manager Duke Clinton and his crew busy the next few months.

The biggest capital improvement project going on this summer is the reroofing of Ontario High School. The existing roof has reached the end of its life-span after more than 20 years.

“And that’s about as long as these types of roofs last,” Clinton said.

The project had initially been contemplated three years ago, but the bids came in too high, so the district had planned to do the reroofing project in segments. This time around, however, the slowdown in the economy brought in much lower bids, and the district was able to do the whole replacement at once.

“We got really good prices on the project,” Clinton said, adding the roofing bid came in at $551,077, with an extra $8,000 or $9,000 for unanticipated structural repairs. Four Seasons Roofing Inc., Ontario, is doing the roofing job, which began mid-June and will be complete Aug. 10.

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Also at OHS, school district workers have completed phase 1 of the exterior paint job, with the rest to follow. Clinton said he schedules to repaint one school a year, although this year the middle school will be repainted as well. Clinton said the district contracted with the Department of Corrections to have inmates perform the work.

The OHS gym floor striping and painting of the school’s logo are also in the works this week, Clinton said.

“This is really the completion of the gym floor replacement project,” he said.

A big project at Ontario Middle School this summer is the refurbishment of the school’s tennis courts. This year students agreed to take $16,000 out of the school’s Associated Student Body fund, which is replenished through the schools annual magazine drive, and use that money to repair the tennis courts. The entire cost was $19,000, with the remaining $3,000 coming from the district. The asphalt has already been replaced and is just waiting to be pressure washed, sealed and painted. Other middle school projects include repairing the bleachers and expanding the OMS library by folding back a curtain wall and laying new carpet in the book aisles and the side room of the library behind the curtain wall. The specialized lessons taught in that room will now take place in the OMS commons, which is also receiving new carpeting.

The school district also took advantage of an Idaho Power rebate to replace Aiken Elementary’s T-12 lights with more energy efficient T-8 light fixtures. The Idaho Power Easy Upgrade Program allowed the school district to pay for 25 percent — or $1,828.50 — of the total cost.

“The payback is probably going to be about a year on that one,” Clinton said.  Clinton said he would like to do the same at May Roberts, but that will depend on how much money is remaining for summer capital improvement projects. Already, he said, the school district may face some additional costs of replacing the underground injection system at Cairo Elementary School with an open swale. Clinton said the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is trying to phase out underground injection systems, which dispose of runoff water, by increasing the requirements each year, and Cairo’s no longer qualifies. That, he said, could get expensive and eat up a good chunk of his remaining summer projects budget. All the current projects, with exception of the roof, were kept in the hopper throughout the year to be done in the summertime as funding allowed.

“I like to keep about $50,000 in reserve just in case something major happens, and if it doesn’t, this is the time of year I do those projects slated,” Clinton said. In addition to possible extra costs to meet DEQ requirements, Clinton said, he is being cautious in how much money is spent especially in light of his next year’s budgets being cut.

“I’m not too eager to spend a whole lot of money right now,” he said.

The school district received a break on technology, however, because a new sales mechanism by Dell allowed the school district to purchase 194 computer replacements, which was one-third more than anticipated and a big help because the 2009-10 budget cut the technology funding by two-thirds.

Clinton said, this summer will probably be the last in awhile where a lot of significant projects take place. Usually, in economic downturns, maintenance, technology and capital improvements funding are the first areas to be cut, he said.

“My guess is it’s probably going to be three years before we have any larger projects that we’re going to do here,” Clinton said.”And that’s pretty optimistic.” Incoming School Board member Renee Corn said she believes, while there are a lot of long-term improvements that could be made in the school district, at the moment, it would be prudent of the school district to”hold the line” and approach spending any more money than necessary very cautiously. She said, while it was a blow to school district officials that the last school bond was not passed, the district has done a good job of making improvements where it can.

“I think the school district is doing the best they can with what they have, like the rest of us,” Corn said.

Until the economic situation turns around, however, Corn said, large-scale projects should wait, even if that means the school district won’t be able to do as many large-scale improvements as in the past two years.