NEWS
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they often have large, open spaces like cafeterias and gym-
nasiums that easily convert to sleeping areas.
“It can be so expensive to retrofit buildings that owners
of businesses are gravitating toward these minimum levels
of safety to assure people get out of the building, but then
you have to deal with the building afterwards,” explains
Chris Poland, a consulting engineer and resiliency expert
who worked with the Beaverton School District in its plan-
ning. “Schools are a special building cluster because, from
a recovery standpoint, getting children back in school so
families start to feel settled is very important.”
The more resilient the school building, the more likely
it is to be open soon after the mega-quake and even serve
as a shelter in the aftermath of the disaster.
In Beaverton’s case, the district is using a $680 mil-
lion bond to design its new schools to double as emergen-
cy shelters and be functional shortly after the earthquake
happens. Its new high school, costing $98 million, is de-
signed with an emergency generator, as well as plumbing
and electric wiring constructed with emergency services in
mind. The features cost the district $900,000, only a frac-
tion of the total cost of the project.
Yu suggests that communities have conversations about
school resilience before putting bond measures to vote —
additional resilience features can bolster the usefulness of
an already important school building.
“It becomes an equity piece and a community asset,”
Yu says.
But first, the conversation needs to happen.
“The question your readers need to ask themselves is:
‘Is it sufficient to know that we have minimum safety or do
we want to upgrade our buildings so we can get them up
to service in a month, or better, so they can serve as shel-
ters?’” Poland tells EW.
According to 4J’s long-term facilities plan, another
bond measure could emerge in 2018 or 2019. The plan
proposes to replace or completely renovate North Eugene
High School and Camas Ridge Elementary. It also looks at
renovating Edison Elementary, one of the oldest and most
historic schools in the district, as well as a yet-to-be-deter-
mined additional elementary school.
The bond measure could be 4J’s chance to incorporate
‘It’s very small-minded
thinking to be throwing
this back on taxpayers.’
— C O N S TA N C E VA N F L A N D E R N ,
E U G E N E 4 J PA R E N T
seismic resilience into its planning.
For parents like Van Flandern and Parsons, the knowl-
edge that disaster could strike at any time is frightening.
“When parents are getting together, they’re doing cal-
culations of the likelihood their kids will be in school when
the earthquake hits,” Parsons says.
Van Flandern says she wants to see schools in Oregon
pursuing federal funds for resilience planning.
“It’s very small-minded thinking to be throwing this
back on taxpayers,” Van Flandern says. “This is a state-
wide problem that needs immediate attention.”
But, she says, it doesn’t help anyone to sweep the issue
under the rug. “We should be having these conversations
all the time,” she adds.
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eugeneweekly.com • October 20, 2016
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