Lebanon
“We need to think about whether (the district’s schools are) meeting our educational needs right now, and that’s where we want to look at some renovations,” said Tatia Prieto, president of Prismatic Services Inc.
Prieto’s North Carolina-based consulting firm was hired in November to produce a report on the district’s buildings that will someday become part of a three-year strategic plan tackling curriculum, instruction and assessments in Lebanon’s schools.
The draft calls for more than $6 million in needed spending on district buildings, and another $4 million in recommended upgrades. The largest costs would come from repaving projects ($2.1 million) and replacing the HVAC systems at the Hanover Street School and Lebanon High School ($2.3 million).
Prieto said the process started with an advanced visit in November, which was followed by the launch of surveys for board members, educators, students and support staff. Overall, 309 people responded and provided a “wealth of information,” she said.
Consultants also visited the schools in December for an assessment and looked at how future enrollment could impact school space going forward.
Prismatic predicts the school district’s enrollment to drop by about 26 students between now and the 2025-26 school year, a decrease of about 1.6 percent.
But that drop won’t be uniform across all grade levels. Pre-K through fourth grade enrollment is expected to decrease by about 1.7 percent while the number of middle school students will increase 6.9 percent and high school enrollment will drop 7.7 percent.
“In our business we call that ‘pretty much flat,’ ” Prieto said. “That’s a wonderful place to be when we’re talking about facilities planning because it’s stability.”
Prieto took School Board members through concerns at each building, beginning with problems at the Hanover Street School.
Like the airlock in the recent film The Martian, Prieto said, the HVAC systems at both the Hanover Street and Lebanon High schools are at the end of their lifespan.
“I’m not saying your boiler’s going to blow up, but they will eventually fail,” she said. “It is better to have planned in the replacement than to wait for the disaster to happen.”
The library at the Hanover Street School also isn’t meeting the needs of students like Mount Lebanon’s does, Prieto said.
“We have two former classrooms with a hole cut through them,” she said. “We don’t provide a space to read books in your current library at Hanover Street.”
Students there deserve the same library as their counterparts at Mount Lebanon, she said.
At Mount Lebanon, the “gymnacafatorium” was one of the most glaringly deficient spaces consultants found. Designed to serve as the school’s gym, cafeteria and auditorium, the space serves none of those functions well, Prieto said.
She said the flooring isn’t designed for the space and students can’t always use it because of scheduling. The kitchen also isn’t equipped for much on-site cooking.
The district’s newest building, Lebanon Middle School, is in good shape, Prieto said. Other than mostly cosmetic changes, she singled out the school’s playground for renovation.
“It’s simply too small,” Prieto said while showing School Board members a photo of children kicking a ball against a section of wall outside.
“There’s simply not enough space to accommodate them all on the playground,” she said.
Prismatic recommends a larger playground by moving parking or relocating the playground further up the Moulton Avenue hill.
Prieto said the Seminary Hill SAU offices are a great asset to the district, but work needs to be done to shore up its brickwork.
“No one should have to give up their mittens to fill in the gaps between the windows and the casement because that’s what’s happening now,” she said, adding the building also needs a new mechanical system.
The district’s maintenance garage, Prieto said, was “the facility in most need of help,” due to its lack of storage space, office space and bathrooms.
Board members asked about Prismatic’s more than $2 million estimate for repaving. Prieto replied that the money could also be used to reconfigure some spaces such as using a property on Dana Street to serve as a pick-up and drop-off location for the Mount Lebanon School.
She was also asked about whether a demographer spoke with city officials to determine future enrollment.
They did, Prieto said, and unless there’s very quick layoffs at area businesses or a very fast uptick in housing, the numbers won’t change.
Prismatic officials are scheduled to come before the board during its April 27 meeting, so members have time to review the draft plans. A community forum on the plan is scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 28 at Lebanon Middle School.
The district’s finance and facilities committee then will be tasked with reviewing the plan and reports to determine which projects to pursue and how best to finance them.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.