La Grande Pride
www.lagrandesd.org • March 2020
7
PROJECTS
continued from page 5
“When there are changes
in personnel, all doors can
be updated in a matter of
seconds, whereas in the
past, we had to wait for a
maintenance staff to visit
all doors and manually up-
load the information.”
This door-networking up-
grade will allow the district
to lock all doors in the event
of an emergency and keep
staff and students safe from
a threat outside the building.
Waite will also be using
funds from the district’s
5-year maintenance ac-
count to add card access
to the Willow Street build-
ing which currently has
no security system. This
is important because our
early intervention program
through Intermountain
ESD and the La Grande
Learning Academy, as well
as District Administrative
offices are located here and
these security measures
are needed to protect both
students and staff.
“With the upgrades,
the district office on Wil-
low Street will resemble
the other buildings in our
district with a doorbell and
camera so the front offices
can see the people prior to
“buzzing” them into our
building,” said Waite.
Another major project
on the summer schedule is
that of repairing the Annex
roof and other building
maintenance repairs.
“During the recent snow
and rain event, several
leaks were discovered in the
Annex,” said Waite. “The
district is spending about
$47,000 to coat the roof
with a silicone base coating
which will extend the roof
life while the district looks
for several avenues for ad-
ditional funding for a major
remodel to the building.”
Possible funding sources
include seismic funding
through the Seismic Reha-
bilitation Grant Program
through the State that
could yield up to $2,500,000
to upgrade the structure to
withstand seismic forces,
Waite explained.
He cited other possi-
ble funding through a
mini-bond utilizing the
Oregon School Capital
Improvement Match Grant,
where the State match-
es dollar-to-dollar up to
$4,000,000 dollars for capi-
tal improvements.
“If both grants were
successful,” he said, “the
district would have $10.5
million to upgrade the
buildings that were not
significantly affected by the
2014 bond projects, namely
Willow and the Annex.”
An additional $20,000 will
be spent on fixing the dam-
aged areas due the leaks.
Roof repairs will take place
as soon as weather allows.
A third project on the
calendar involves the mod-
ular classrooms and office
space remodels. This work
will start in June and wind
up by mid-August. At the
campus where old Central
once stood, there are five
modular classrooms that
were part of the school.
The district retained these
units with the intent to sell
them, but then decided to
use them for storage with
a plan to renovate them to
allow space for pre-school
programs.
“Consequently, this
summer we will be adding
restroom facilities in these
classrooms as well as door
access controls, intercoms
and clocks, fire alarm as
well as a general renovation
to the floor coverings and
roof,” said Waite. “The proj-
ect will require site-work
upgrades such as paving
and landscaping.”
In addition to these
projects, Waite said the dis-
trict has plans to remodel
the upstairs library at the
Middle School, converting
a small computer lab and
library space into two new
classrooms.
“This remodel is neces-
sary because the population
of the Middle School’s fifth,
sixth and seventh-grade
classes are all nearly 200
students each,” said Waite.
“Normal class sizes are 180
each, so when these large
classes pass through the
Middle School, the extra
rooms will allow flexibili-
ty for additional space for
services like behavioral and
counseling services.”
Lastly, the summer will
include smaller projects
such as the replacement of
the water main at the high
school, concrete replacement
at the high school entrance,
fence replacement, adding
more security cameras and
addressing radon mitigation.
It will be a busy summer
for Waite, the maintenance
department and other nec-
essary contracted workers,
but it will ultimately in-
crease student safety, secu-
rity and building longevity.