Oakland Bay updates proposed

The heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems are failing at Oakland Bay Junior School, and windows, flooring, toilet partitions, countertops, wall coverings and lighting need to be replaced.

Robert Herron, the Shelton School District's director of facilities and maintenance, presented that assessment March 28 to the Shelton School Board. A $4 million capital investment could return the school back to near-new condition, he said.

"Oakland Bay is 33 years old and OSPI (the state Office of Public Instruction) recommends that at 30 years it be completely modernized or replaced," he told the board. "We do a good job keeping that building put together and running, but it's costing a lot more to run in the current condition. We're spending a lot of money replacing things as they fail or age out. Ideally, we really need to get to a point, because these costs are adding up every year and compounding. To keep up with the need of what's going on, we really need to spend about $500,000 a year.

"But if we could pull it off with one $4 million chunk, at some point in the near future, we could get the building in almost new condition. That building is a very solid building, it was built really well. With an investment, it could run another 30 years."

Herron added, "Without additional funding, it takes a significant chunk of the maintenance budget."

Herron's report on Oakland Bay Junior High followed an update on facilities and maintenance projects throughout the district. The district recently installed two portables at Cedar High School on the Olympic College Shelton campus, in time for the third trimester that begins on Monday.

"We're really excited about being able to do that in the middle of the school year," Herron said.

Current projects include refinishing and sealing the entry columns at Mountainview Elementary School this week during spring break, and the district's Enrollment and Boundary Committee continuing is reports and findings this summer.

Herron also updated the school board on the construction and maintenance projects slated for this summer.

The special education portables at Shelton High School will be re-sided. "They are desperately in need of that," Herron said. Leaks will be repaired on the roof of the school's Building 800.

The district will fulfill a request by the Shelton Fire Department to widen the gates and sidewalk at the west exit of Mountanview Elementary School, Herron said. The water will be tested for lead, copper and other contaminants districtwide, a study conducted every two years, he said.

Other summer projects include repairing and painting fascia boards and expanding joint gaps at Highclimber Stadium; repairing and replacing parts of the sidewalk and replacing three or four windows at Oakland Bay Junior High; a "final touchup of the plaster" at the swimming pool at Shelton High School; and seeding the grassy play area and replacing flooring in a student bathroom at Evergreen Elementary.

Looking beyond this summer, Herron said the district should consider projects that include reroofing the Shelton High School Performing Arts Center; painting and re-siding the older portables in the district; replacing the boilers ai Olympic Middle School, Bordeaux Elementary and the high school pool; and reroofing the Early Learning Center.

The basketball court wood floor in the Shelton High School Mini-Dome needs to be replaced, and the current price is about $650,000, Herron said.

In the meantime, it will be refinished, he said.