School buildings get a passing grade

Each of the school buildings in the Medical Lake School District appears to be in good condition.

During the March 28 school board of directors meeting, Finance Director Chad Moss said he and maintenance supervisor Gary Hartman completed a condition assessment on all of the district's buildings.

The summary is a part of the state Information and Condition of Schools inventory of facilities and buildings program. The information is used to support the Asset Prevention Program.

Moss said school districts are required to assess buildings that were paid with state funds. Every six years, the district will work with a certified consultant to conduct an independent review of each of the buildings and present its findings to OSPI and the school board.

Each building is graded under five major categories: substructure, shell, interiors, services and furnishings. Under the five major categories are sub-assemblies, such as foundation, exterior enclosures, interior construction and plumbing. Underneath those are components - standard foundation, exterior walls and windows and domestic water distribution.

The assessment scoring consists of ratings at each component level are excellent, good, fair, poor and unsatisfactory.

All of Hallett's and the middle school's condition ratings were good (90 percent) across the board. Michael Anderson had good for all components, except for its standard foundation, which was rated fair (62 percent). Hartman said this is mostly because of the condition of the concrete on the building's bus loop.

"That building is 15 years old, it's still in good condition," Hartman added.

Most of the high school's components were rated good, except for the roofs, interior doors, flooring and the integrated automation facility controls.

A district can raise the condition ratings on their buildings through maintenance. During the summer, staff repaired the asphalt at Michael Anderson Elementary School and sealed cracks on the playground equipment. Staff also replaced a couple of the interior doors and locks at the high school.

"We try to stay on top the maintenance work," Hartman said. "We don't want to keep it waiting, otherwise it becomes expensive (to fix)."

Moss said fixing the high school's roof would be one of the bigger, more expensive projects staff would undertake.

"The high school has the biggest roof in the district with 14 different sections," Moss said. "(Fixing it) would depend on financial decision and what the board wants to do as far as priorities."

The next step in the process is the school district will bring in outside consultants to come and assess the buildings. Hartman said working with outside groups in the past has helped him with his job in finding issues with the buildings.

"They'll see something that I might have missed," Hartman said.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].