Tuning Up Trent East Valley Elementary Shcool Needs Overhaul To Continue Its Usefulness
East Valley School District is asking voters to spend $5.2 million to renovate Trent Elementary School.
Until architects sit down with parents, school staff and administrators after the Feb. 6 election, however, it won’t be clear just what the money will buy. Also, there is no agreement yet on how many new classrooms can be created in the school’s existing space.
Old Mother Trent has gotten by for a long time. She was built during World War II and expanded several times. Her roof was last redone in 1979. She was “energized” in 1977 or ‘78 - windows were covered up, her hardwood floors got carpet, and acoustic panels hid her cavernous ceilings.
That’s as good as it got.
“The last time the building was remodeled was when my oldest son was in the fourth grade,” said Brenda Lobdell, former East Valley school board member. Her son, Eric, is now 25.
The school district is asking voters to approve a two-year levy of $8.98 million and a bond issue of $11.9 million - $5.2 million of which would go to Trent.
Roof, exterior walls, gymnasium and the 630-seat auditorium, now the prize of the school, would remain intact. School district officials and members of the building’s bond committee have several priorities.
Safety is one. A solid wall between the main door and the office prevents staff from seeing who enters the building. Security-conscious parents want that changed, said Trent principal Shelley Harding. A new fire-alarm system is also needed.
Bringing the building up to code, with asbestos, radon and disability access work, is another priority, said Marilyn Fulton, a parent and bond committee member.
Asbestos-covered pipes in the crawl space under the school represent a major unknown cost, said Dean Lueck, unofficial district historian and bond campaign organizer. Updating the elderly heating system and wiring also are on the list.
Increasing Trent from its present 18 classrooms to 24 is a priority for Superintendent Chuck Stocker, but not for the bond committee members.
“I want to increase the classrooms a minimum of six to eight,” Stocker said. “I’ve told you that we’ve set a standard of 24 classrooms for all our elementaries,” he said.
Stocker’s thinking is influenced by the open fields to the south and east of the school. About 440 children attend Trent today.
Development plans have been announced for those fields. Add the 316-apartment complex planned for Mission and McDonald, just across Interstate 90, and the school clearly is in for more kids. In five years, 550 children will be enrolled, Stocker estimates.
The school has the square footage to accommodate that growth but not enough classrooms.
Trent’s classrooms are the most spacious in the district, Lobdell said. They were built to hold classes of as many as 36 children, Lueck said.
Now, classes are no more than 25. Bond committee members would like to keep the large rooms, Lobdell and Fulton said. They see a possible gain of one or two classrooms at most.
One kindergarten classroom is particularly oversized. It has extra room at the back, with cupboards, little tables and pint-sized chairs. All told, the room measures 65 feet long.
Principal Harding figures the two kindergarten classes alone offer enough extra space for a third classroom.
The girls locker room off the gymnasium, where six showerheads sprout from pink tile, is used for cold storage, as is the boys locker room. Those rooms haven’t been used since 1974 or ‘75, Lueck said.
The space could be converted into a computer room or a place for specialists to work with students in twos or threes.
The brick gymnasium itself is in good shape. But the lighting isn’t. Updated lighting would make the place at least five times brighter, with no change in the school’s power bill, said Don Barth of Rod’s Electric.
Wiring is a major problem.
Last May, a power surge blitzed Trent’s main breaker panel, smoked the panels in the custodian’s room and erupted into fire in the school’s library. The bill came to about $225,000. New wiring would have prevented that damage.
The wiring isn’t equal to today’s demands. Lori Finley, a fourth-grade teacher, has learned that if she uses a crockpot and the computers in her room at the same time, she can blow the breaker for her room.
Power strips, those devices that allow several pieces of electrical equipment to be plugged in at one outlet, are indispensable at Trent.
Some teachers use two or three. That’s because they want to run VCRs, TVs, computers, printers, tape players, aquarium lights and more. Tomorrow’s technology will only increase the school’s demands for wiring.
“If we plug a vacuum cleaner into a certain outlet in the main hallway, just that will pop a breaker,” said custodian Leroy Bach.
The school needs an overhaul if it is to be useful for another 30 years, said Harding, the principal.
“We’re just trying to be good stewards of the public’s money,” she said.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CV, WV MEASURES On Feb. 6, Central Valley and West Valley school districts also will ask voters to approve construction bonds and supplemental levies. Here are the amounts and uses for the money: CV bond: $23.28 million would pay for a new 600-student elementary school at Liberty Lake ($9.7 million), complete renovation of Bowdish Junior High ($7.8 million), heating, ventilation and outdoor physical education improvements at both South Pines Elementary and University High School ($1 million), and capital projects throughout the district, including energy conservation, paving, sewer and disability access work ($4.8 million). CV levy: $19.5 million over two years would help pay day-today operating expenses, excluding salary increases. The tax rate would be $4.28 per $1,000 the first year and $3.67 the second year. WV bond: $4.2 million would add 16 new classrooms to existing elementary schools. WV levy: $7.5 million over two years would help pay day-to-day operating expenses. The tax rate would be $4.91 per $1,000 the first year and $4.06 the second year.