This is the eighth in a series looking at projects included in an Enid Public Schools Dec. 11 bond issue election. The series continues daily through Dec. 9. Anyone wishing to submit questions about the proposal can e-mail them to trasp@enidnews. com.
By Tippi Rasp
Staff Writer
A well-known Biblical verse is etched into the stone high above the second floor entrance at Garfield Elementary School.
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Visitors rarely notice the words, only the front steps, said Principal Kathy Edson.
“Our stairs are crumbling,” she said.
Garfield staff and school administrators hope voters will see the truth behind the etched stone on the front of the near 90-year-old building and vote to build a new school to house a growing population of students and offer the amenities they deserve.
An $11.5 million bond issue proposed by Enid Public Schools would provide $9.7 million for facility improvements, $1.2 million for technology purchases and $600,000 for new buses.
It will allow the district to complete a 10-year facility improvement plan to provide upgrades at all school sites, including a new Garfield Elementary, which would be the first new EPS school since 1963.
School administrators said Garfield’s stairs can be repaired, carpet and windows replaced, lighting upgraded, leaks patched and bathrooms renovated.
“Yes, we can continue to camouflage,” Edson said.
The cost of renovations, however, is a concern to school district administrators. Recent estimates exceeded $2.19 million to renovate the building.
Edson said the most compelling reason to build a new school is the increase in population the school has seen the last few years.
“I can’t make it bigger,” she said.
She said Garfield’s enrollment has increased by 10 to 15 students in each of the last several years.
“I don’t see any reason for that to change,” Edson said.
Todd Earl, chairman of the committee dedicated to passing the bond issue, said the most compelling reason to build a new school is the cost to renovate the existing structure.
“You could extend the life with rehabilitation,” Earl said, but existing funds aren’t available to comply with disability laws and other needs.
A change of plans ...
Renovations funded by proceeds from a 2003 special election were planned for this summer at Garfield, but bids came in over budget, Superintendent Kem Keithly said. The bids were somewhere between $1.4 and $1.5 million and didn’t include renovation of all restrooms or disability law compliance issues.
A school board member originally approached Keithly with the idea of building a new Garfield school. After consulting with an architect, Keithly brought the numbers to board members, and they approved it.
If voters agree Dec. 11, funds already set aside from the 2003 issue will be combined with those approved in 2007 to build a new school. The costs associated with Garfield in the Dec. 11 measure total $3.4 million. The total cost for a new school is nearly $4.9 million.
Existing problems at the school
In the basement, Edson said creative ingenuity has been used in a number of ways. One example was to use an old chalkboard to patch a deteriorating wall. Edson can point out a spot on the wall in a room shared by several instructors and tutors where it was patched. Students and teachers can’t see the repair because Edson painted over it.
In the same room, pipes carrying water from the school’s heating system — a boiler — are exposed. If the heat is on, teachers in that area typically have the window cracked to let some of the heat escape. Upstairs, students often wear their coats to escape the cold.
A sticker on a window in the room warns of the possibility of windows falling suddenly.
Besides low ceilings, heating pipe exposure and unsafe windows, Keithly said the basement, which also houses the boiler, stays damp, moist and moldy, although the district checks the area annually for dangerous mold and has found none.
Other issues around the school’s campus include the students sharing their lunchroom with physical education classes. Like Adams Elementary School, creative scheduling is a must at Garfield to meet both PE and nutrition needs for students.
“We have no cafeteria. That creates a scheduling nightmare,” Edson said.
Students leaving and entering Garfield to attend music class, physical education or to eat lunch have to leave the main building. In rainy weather, students and teachers must contend with what Garfield staff refers to as the “roaring Garfield river,” a fast-moving stream of water funneling through the area between the main building and the gym, portable classroom and playground.
Conditions in classrooms aren’t good either. Broken and breezy windows line the entire north wall of some classes, and the entire south wall of others. Edson said there isn’t one piece of carpeting in the entire building that doesn’t need to be replaced.
Because the only entrance to the school is on the second level, the school isn’t in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act laws. Making the school ADA compliant would require extensive work and funds. Estimated costs for installing an elevator in the school could exceed $250,000.
It’s hard for anyone who enters the building to not notice the smell. Porous ceramic tile in bathrooms soaks up waste that can’t be cleaned by custodial staff no matter how hard they scrub.
“We’ve got 100 years of waste in three flights of drains,” Edson said.
Keithly said problems like those creating the smell in Garfield’s bathrooms can’t be solved in any way but by tearing out the flooring and walls and replacing it with a new surface.
Edson said other problems also are arising in the school’s bathrooms.
“We’re finding our sinks are falling off the walls,” she said.
Edson said she is convinced anyone who tours Garfield would support building a new school.
She said anyone who would like a tour is welcome to call 234-5950 or stop by anytime between 7:15 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.
The plan behind a new Garfield
A new Garfield Elementary School, if approved by voters, would open in the fall or winter of 2009. It would include adding a classroom per grade, a music room, library, computer lab, cafeteria, special rooms reserved for supplemental services, administrative and counseling offices and a teachers’ workroom and lounge.
The school would be situated next the original school, so it easily could be attached to the gymnasium. The existing gym is the newest addition on the campus and was built in the late-1970s.
If the new school was built, it would include a cafeteria, and the kitchen in the gym could be converted to the PE office. The PE teacher uses the stage an an office and for storage.
It also would include an off-street loading and unloading area for students.
The expense of renovations to the old building and the poor results from patchwork should be enough to compel voters to approve the propositions, Earl said.
“It’s time to put the kids in safe and adequate classrooms,” Earl said.
Edson said: “We are so pleased to be considered. We are ready to accept that challenge.”
A new plan for an old Garfield
Keithly said it would be 2011 or 2012 before the district decides what ultimately would happen to the old facility.
The immediate plan would include using it to house Longfellow students while classroom renovations were occurring there.
Earl said with a community focused on revitalization in the school’s immediate area, there is a possibility of rehabilitating the old structure.
“It needs a whole bunch of love and a whole bunch of money,” Earl said.
Conditions not hindering performance
Inside a sixth-grade classroom, students last week were getting a lesson on an interactive white board from their teacher, Brandi Humphries. The white board was purchased with federal funds awarded to the school by the state Department of Education for improvement in math test scores.
The school received the award twice, which came with a $25,000 cash prize each time, said Amber Graham Fitzgerald, director of school and community relations for EPS.
“These are teachers and students who are doing an outstanding job,” she said.
Earl said Garfield has some of the highest performing students in the district.
Edson said her students are some of the brightest and most gifted.
“How funny is it that my kids excel,” Edson said. “I’ve got amazing children.”
