Thoughts on rebuilding Salem High School.

I attended the informational meeting last Thursday that the School District put on to explain the proposed renovations at Salem High School.  All and all is seems OK to me.  But I have several reservations and suggestions. 

The first is for the School District to be more honest.  The School District’s record on prevarications is beyond the scope of this. But it is substantial, fairly frequent and goes back decades.  Last Thursday night was no exception.  For instance when I asked about future bond articles expiring, which would lower the property tax impact by offsetting some of the increase, the superintendent mentioned that there was one in a couple of years.  But it took an astute follow up question from Stephen Campbell to show that the in their tax impact figures the District was already figuring that in.  That begs the question “What else are they fudging?”   Similarly when I asked a number of questions about one of my main concerns that the building be built and rebuilt to be as configurable as possible, the answers I got were less than unequivocal.  To me that is not a complicated question.  Again “What else are they hiding?”  I don’t think planning a building to be readily configurable is too much to ask.  The Kelly Library, which is as old as much of the High School and has adapted to the times and vastly expanded its usage in the same footprint, is right next door.  That the Kelly Library is still so modern is not an accident it was designed that way.

On a positive note unlike personnel costs this is a capital expenditure, which to me is a justifiable use of taxpayers’ dollars.  Eventually the bonds are paid off and the building is still there. Contrast that with personnel costs where the employees are long gone and the taxpayers are still paying. Long-range personnel costs are unsustainable.  Bonds are not.  The school district is right about the classrooms below the gym not being suitable.  They are marginally suitable for storage space.  The science wing is a good idea because the renovations to the existing science labs might even cost much more.  Some of the proposed demolitions are of structures that might fall down on their own. Band-Aids and a lot of praying are holding up one of the gyms. I am not convinced the existing auditorium would not due.  But that is a debatable issue.

So in sum, I think I some might agree with me on these points.  Firstly, that some High School renovations are probably overdue or at least needed. Secondly that in order to get this passed the School District has to be totally transparent.  When the School District is less that candid on anything, I wonder if that is the only thing they are fibbing about.  Thirdly to truly last a lifetime as the School District is claiming, the renovations as much as possible must make reconfigurable, such as widening corridors and expanding office space and decreasing or increasing the size of rooms or adding future infrastructure like wiring or plumbing.  .