This weekend's Phoenix talked about plans the school board is considering with regards to the Phoenixville Area Middle School. The article highlights three alternatives that are up for consideration. They are:
According to the article, the renovation plan has been taken off the table. The board commented that:
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“Schools are finding that doing it piecemeal with a lot of labor is too costly,” Gilbert said. “At the end, you have a patchwork quilt. And a patchwork quilt will always look like a patchwork quilt.”
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While I am not going to argue that building onto an existing structure often leads to a bit of a patchwork look, I don't buy the cost arguments, at least based on the #'s presented. By going the route of the renovation, we (as a district) would be saving $27M up front. Even if there were no ongoing costs for a new facility (which won't be the case), it would take 87 years at $310k/year for the renovation to become a losing alternative.
Of course, a renovated Middle School won't last as long as a new building, but with the current economic situation our district finds itself in, I think it would be prudent to give that option some serious consideration.
- Continue to patch problems as they arise. Cost for this is approximately $250,000-$300,000 a year and will only buy the district a couple of years and doesn't address some of the glaring needs of the district with regards to expanding the middle school.
- Renovate and add new spaces to the exisiting structure. Cost for this would be approximately $23 million with estimated ongoing expenses for things like maintenance and upkeep priced at $310k per year. This would extend the life of the middle school considerably but not to the extent that a new building would.
- Build a completely new building. Cost would be approximately $50 million. Conveniently, no mention was made with regards to yearly upkeep expenses. Lets assume, for the sake of argument, that this # is something less than the $310k quoted for the annual cost if they renovated.
According to the article, the renovation plan has been taken off the table. The board commented that:
---
“Schools are finding that doing it piecemeal with a lot of labor is too costly,” Gilbert said. “At the end, you have a patchwork quilt. And a patchwork quilt will always look like a patchwork quilt.”
---
While I am not going to argue that building onto an existing structure often leads to a bit of a patchwork look, I don't buy the cost arguments, at least based on the #'s presented. By going the route of the renovation, we (as a district) would be saving $27M up front. Even if there were no ongoing costs for a new facility (which won't be the case), it would take 87 years at $310k/year for the renovation to become a losing alternative.
Of course, a renovated Middle School won't last as long as a new building, but with the current economic situation our district finds itself in, I think it would be prudent to give that option some serious consideration.
Comments
That argument has been used by the current Board to continue to build, build, build which has done nothing but raise, raise, raise our taxes.
Look at the private schools Phoenixville parents are sending their kids to: Malvern Prep, Kimberton Waldorf, Hill School, etc. Those parents are never going to send their kids to a public school, so we shouldn't waste taxpayer money to "woo" them.
Supposedly, the economic stimulus package is going to have some serious money in it for renovating schools, especially for energy efficiency. Besides the tax savings and saving Meadowbrook Golf Course, if we renovate, we'll be able to access those dollars also and have a school that saves on fuel costs in the future.
A good architect can make a renovation look good. Let's spend the money on good design and keep what we have, rather than adding to the local tax burden to fund grandiose building schemes.
Invest in a new middle school and the whole community will benefit.