by Thaddeus Flint
At the start of the Tuesday meeting of the Berlin Central School District School Board a delightful short film was screened. “All of our stuff is broken!” voiced a young student in it from the Berlin Elementary School. She was talking about all their playground stuff, but she could have easily been speaking in regard to the building itself. She would probably be surprised though just how broken it could possibly be. The School Spirit Committee had put the film together as part of their campaign to get new playground equipment. According to a Japanese saying, if you create a thousand paper origami cranes your wish will come true. Someone had read this in a book by Eleanor Coerr called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. The pupils of Berlin Elementary then made one thousand paper cranes. They wish now for a better playground.
Will they get a new playground? The Berlin Parent Teachers Organization has already raised $4,000 for it. No small sum. A grant exists as well. It certainly seems possible. But what about the building itself?
A Troubled Building
This building, that is the Berlin Elementary School, seemed like a ghost in the room. Nobody could see it, but its chilling gloom was felt in nearly everything that was spoken of. The building is simply falling apart. Some people, in its lifetime of over seventy years, failed along the way to properly maintain it. The boiler is about to die. Roofs are falling apart. Towers need painting. Paint needs un-painting. “All of our stuff is broken!” indeed.
In fairness, many maintenance plans through the years have been undertaken on the elementary school, yet at least one went horribly wrong. The building was painted when it needed paint. But that paint was lead based. Years ago nobody knew lead paint didn’t mix so well with growing children. Now the building is soaked with lead paint. A lead abatement project was begun. According to Interim School Superintendent Dr. Brian Howard, the invoices so far total $284,490. This quarter million dollars and change did not remove all the lead paint though. That’s a much larger project for the future. All that could be done so far was to remove the chipping paint and to make safe one window in each room.
Give Us Air
The broken down boiler isn’t so much a problem at the moment now that the days are warming with the appearance of spring. The new problem is actually too much heat. In a building with no air conditioning, opening windows is about the only way to cool it. Yet now only one window in each room can be safely opened and closed. The others can’t be touched for fear of stirring up the toxic lead.
Howard did have some refreshing news on this subject though. Apparently District Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Cyril Grant, and his team have come up with an “ingenious solution” to the windows. Somehow they have found a way to let more fresh air into the classrooms. They are currently testing it and hope the method can be deployed soon throughout the building. Board Member Beverly Stewart proposed that in the meantime each room be equipped with a fan. “I would appreciate it if they at least have some air moving in those rooms,” she said.
So the building is full of lead. It’s either too hot or too cold. What other stuff is broken? According to Grant some lighting stuff and some exterior stuff is broken. Apparently the safety lighting is outdated. It will have to be replaced. That will probably cost around $30,000. The roof also leaks. Right now there are tarps rigged up under the roof to handle the rain. Board Member John Nash said he took a tour of the roof. He didn’t seem too happy about what it looks like. He was also concerned that mold might one day develop into a health problem. The tarps cannot be seen, at least not yet. The slate roof could use some work, too, though, so tarps covering roofs might not be all that far in the future. The exterior work is estimated at around $45,000.
A Public Referendum On Building Repairs
Stewart proposed that a public referendum be held on how to fund the repairs of the building. Wait, did this include the clock tower? The clock tower on the Elementary School building is in a poor state. It’s odd that this should be so seeing as how that tower was repaired and repainted at no small cost only a few years back. How could it be falling apart again? Stewart was especially concerned that bringing up the repair of the clock tower at a referendum so shortly after it had been supposedly repaired might rub voters the wrong way. “If a taxpayer sees the words clock tower there,” she said, “it’s going to provoke a lot of emotion…it will probably get voted down.” The public referendum, most likely to be scheduled for this coming fall, was unanimously approved by the Board. The exact wording of it is yet to come.
In the meantime a Leadership Advisory Committee meets, discusses and schedules more meetings and discussions with the intent of arriving at a complete plan for the future “foot print” of the Berlin Central School District. Fix the old school or build a new one, something will eventually have to be done.
Budget Hearing Time Changed
Finally, it was decided that the scheduled time of the public hearing on the budget on May 10 will be moved to 7:30 pm as this is the same night of the intermediate school music concert. Both will be conveniently held at Berlin High School, allowing residents to first observe the musical accomplishments of the District’s gifted students, and then walk right down the hall to the hearing and complain about all the broken stuff – all in one night.