No Fire Escapes for the Maple Street and Nancy Loud Schools
Rochester School Department spent $40,000 for a Facility Needs Study. To date there is no formal PLAN put forth by the School Board created from this STUDY. The summary pages by school have 3 separate lists with estimated costs: Priority 1 – Must be implemented; Priority 2 – Highly Recommended; Priority 3 – Worth Consideration
Maple Street School presently has NO sprinkler system. When will the state mandate that? Mr. Hopkins, at a school board meeting not to long ago, was asked what he would do if he were mandated to sprinkle this school? His answer, I would have to consider abandoning the building. I would say long before putting stairs on building this old that he should go with that thought and abandon the building now. Use the contingency plan for a year and then shut down operations.
This is a partial list from the study for the Maple Street School “MUST BE IMPLEMENTED”:
Install automatic sprinkler system; fire escape does not provide protected egress in winter; provide 1 hour rated fire separation; eliminate storage under stair; install kitchen exhaust hood and extinguishing system; add emergency lighting; add exit signs and install electrical receptacles.
One has to question how much of this work was done as the current Fire Marshal Report sited this school for NO exit signs throughout the building. Personal affects stored in corridors in UNSPRINKLED building, storage of hazardous and flammable materials in stairs, hallways leading to second floor bathroom used as storage and the list goes on. The school is only using four rooms for students and yet we still are violating fire codes.
The School District MAP has 5 of the elementary schools clustered within 2-3 miles of each other. The STUDY recommended closing Maple Street, Nancy Loud and School Street. Why has this item been kept such a secret? Eight years ago the economy was better and it would have cost less money to make the recommended changes. The School Department took $40,000 for this report and has failed to implement the majority of the Priority Items, except for contracting with Honeywell. Why hasn’t the School Department kept the schools in compliance with the State Codes?
Why only 2 bids? Factors could be: Age of the buildings. Nancy Loud was built in 1880. What happens when you cut into a 130 year old building that has not been properly maintained, not to mention the years of lead paint and there could be asbestos in the insulation. Maple Street was built in 1931. The equipment used to cut into the brick and mortar could potentially disrupt the entire side of the building. What is the contingency plan for these disaster? Only 70 calendar days to complete the projects! Start date was noted as June 21st. Anticipation of numerous Concealed Conditions would increase the cost of the projects and extend the completion dates of both projects. As per the bid, if the job is not completed by August 29th, there will be a $1,000 fine per school per day until an occupancy permit is issued. There was on 12 working days in which to calculate a bid for this project. There were two addendums one issued TWO hours before the bids were to be opened.
Where is Mr. Hopkins “contingency” plan which has been requested by at least two School Board members, the Council and the Taxpayers? Parents need to know their children may be moving if this project is incomplete. Mr. Hopkins should not be waiting until a week before school is to start to notify families.
Horne Construction has a track record of completing their projects late and currently are or have been in the past sued for shoddy work. Dover sued over a problem with the foundation of the Children’s Museum. Horne Construction built our current Police Department and we all know that the bid went out for $2.2 million and the completed project cost the taxpayer over $5 million, forget the fact we still have problems with that building.
How to you just FIND surplus money, when in fact it is taxpayer dollars. You buffered your budget by how much: $746,000. So far you have: Spent $141,000 for NEXT year supplies; lost $200,000 in budget, will take from heating fuel line item; lost $45,000 for paving line item. FOUND $360,000 CASH for these fire escapes. How do you just FIND cash? With this new found $360,000 in cash how many walls could be built in the East Rochester Elementary School? This is not a new subject either. Parents have come to the school board, superintendent, principal and even volunteered to do the work themselves but are always told no. How long do these 262 children have to wait before their school is corrected, one that was opened in 1968?
Better yet, how many teaching positions could have been put back into the budget for $360,000? Now every student in the district must suffer from total mismanagement of funds because the School Department doesn’t know when to stop spending inappropriately and would rather put money into schools that may conceivably have to close by the end of the summer if the project is not completed rather than putting teachers back into the classroom.
Mr. Hopkins claims to have grave concern for the children! Really! Never completed the Mandatory List of the 2002 Study; McClelland School had no outside audible alarm, children were returning to the classroom while a fire drill was being conducted; walls at East Rochester Elementary School were built without a permit and emergency lighting and alarms not installed when hallway walls went up. Classrooms in the middle of the school never heard alarms go off and stayed in the building. This was only corrected this school year! Sprinklers are now inefficient due to present locations. If East Rochester needed to be locked down this would be impossible for the perimeter classrooms as there are no doors which can be locked. There are no secure partitions creating classrooms.
When installing the new Fire Alarm System at RMS, in the Fire Department’s update it referenced roof leaks that needed to be addressed. This prompts the following questions: Do we have a list of all schools with the type of roof and their condition? Do we have a plan to repair or replace any roofs? When will the concerns of other schools be addressed?
BCA was mentioned in the Fire Marshal’s report which brings into question; does the district perform the required 10 drills a year at each school location? Why has there never been a fire drill at BCA for the safety of the students, staff and the public? In the HOPE school, some of our most vulnerable students, are they required to have Fire Drills? Who creates the Fire Drill reports noting any deficiencies? Who does the School Department hire as an outside vendor to test these systems? Where are the reports filed?
We took money to buy a “practice” ball field which everyone can SEE, but we haven’t seen fit to maintain and update our schools which NO ONE can see. Please explain this logic? Cost of the ball field includes land acquisition, water source to sprinkle ball field, future costs could include building of a maintenance shed, installing a building for toilets, purchase additional land for a parking lot, general maintenance cost for the fields.
On many occasions the public has come before the school board and voiced their concerns about the direction the School Department is taking our schools and every single time they have been ignored, a prime example would be the Big Step Forward. Many agreed that it was a good idea, but wanted you to slow down and do this correctly, yet you ignored us. Mr. Hopkins, as an employee of the city, needs to understand that he works for the taxpayer, not the School Board or the union.
Mr. Hopkins, at the City Council meeting on June 15th, stated that there were three under populated schools. Most of us have known this has been the case since at least 2000, if not before. An attempt was made to consolidate the third graders in that area. Instead of reassigning schools, a task that might have caused some anxiety, you chose to cave to the minority at the expense of the majority. Various school board members stick to the same talking points and continually state that our schools are overcrowded. My question to them is: “have they really checked this out themselves or do you just agree with Mr. Hopkins”? Former school board members have calculated that with the decline in student population within two years we will no longer need the modular classrooms. Learn to live within our means and stop looking for every new idea that comes around as they all come with conditions.
Mr. Hopkins stated that it would not be feasible to move the students attending Maple Street School as it would be a disruption to their education. Their education is disrupted after the third grade. Additionally, on Wednesday, June 15th, parents received a letter home stating what schools were SINI and if they wished they could move their student to another school, yet the only option was Nancy Loud and Maple Street. Given the fact these schools only go up to the 3rd grade, moving them would be ludicrous as they would end up going back to their original school after the 3rd grade. Isn’t this just as disruptive? It seems that, we are able to bus students in to beef up enrollment, but we cannot bus them out when enrollment is low because it would be disruptive. There appears to be a double standard occurring here, a double standard affecting more than just 72 students.
The Rochester Concerned Taxpayers have spoken up. We are tired of wasteful spending. The time has come to do what should have been done years ago. The old cliché of “it is for the children” does not tug on the heart strings of the taxpayers. These children will get an education no matter where they go. It is the taxpayer’s responsibility to provide an education for all children. It is NOT the taxpayers’ responsibility to ensure that there is a school outside every door so that parents are not inconvenienced.
Mr. Hopkins you are responsible for maintaining our schools and you have neglected to do this. Now you want another high school. The time has come to take care of what we have and make our schools safe for all the children of this city. If some parents get upset so be it. It is your job to make those difficult decisions. If you are unable to make those decisions then maybe the time has come for you to retire.
This was a correction to some of the information that was in this WMUR article.