Architect says Brownsville school in ‘excellent shape’
While the Brownsville Area School Board is hoping to solve a number of problems with its high school/middle school project, architect Michael Molnar says the high school is in good shape. Molnar recently spoke to board members and administrators and made some recommendations for the project, which has no cost figure or feasibility study. Molnar said he will have the study completed for a meeting with the board at 6 p.m. Aug. 30, but he said he needs a cost figure for the project.
Board members have said overcrowding due to the closing of Redstone Middle school is the main concern of the high school/middle school project, but problems with pyrite, which is affecting the sewerage system, also will be addressed.
Director Rocky Brashear said at a recent meeting with Molnar that he does not feel students received a good education last year because of “crammed space and time.” In a previous interview, Brashear said the school was so crowded that four different classes were held in the auditorium at once.
Board members also have expressed concerns about use of the cafeteria and especially the gymnasium, because the district is still using the gymnasium at the Redstone Middle School, which, according to Director Dr. Melvin Sally, costs the district $98,000 a year to run.
In its original proposal, which is expected to be scaled back possibly from $23 million to $10 million, the project included two new gymnasiums and two new cafeterias to address their problems. But now, Superintendent Dr. Gerry Grant has said, and Molnar agreed, that a new gym and cafeteria are not practical, given the district’s budget.
“There’s no way to have two gyms,” Molnar said.
He said the high school gymnasium is not in the location that it should be, and he suggested “structuring a design for the least amount of involvement between the lower and higher grades.”
He suggested converting the current gymnasium into eight to 12 classrooms and a two-story library. Although he admitted reimbursement for building a gymnasium is low, which Grant has said is a concern for the district, he said the cost of building a gym is less expensive than building classrooms.
Molnar said the high school is in “excellent shape” and “very huge,” with 138,000 square feet for the high school and 30,200 square feet for the middle school wing.
He suggested, though, that sixth-grade students remain in the elementary schools instead of being moved up to the high school/middle school.
But Grant said the district wanted a “true middle school” from grades six to eight.
“If you leave the sixth grade in elementary school, it will save money. I guarantee you that. I am certain it will be less expensive,” Molnar said.
He said the elementary schools have plenty of room for sixth-graders.
He said if the sixth-graders are moved up to the high school/middle school, four to five extra classrooms will be needed and the circulation areas and cafeteria will have to be enlarged.
He said if seventh- and eighth-graders are placed in a junior high wing and ninth through 12th grades are in the high school wing, the current 6,000-square-foot cafeteria would serve just fine.
It would have a capacity to serve 500 students comfortably at one time, and with a maximum of 1,670 pupils, that would translate to only three lunch periods.
Grant, noting that the district has 100 to 110 sixth-graders, said that higher enrollment helps the district in terms of state reimbursement.
Molnar told the board that the state requires that the high school/middle school project be one phase of a much larger project, in order for the district to qualify for state reimbursement.
Board members said they are concerned about that issue because they were hoping to receive reimbursement for portable classrooms that are needed regardless of a renovation project. Directors expressed interest in possibly adding an elementary school complex to future phases of the renovation project.
Molnar also recommended that a “very large” weight room in the high school be converted to classroom space or possibly a practice gym for basketball or wrestling.
The board discussed that option, hoping for a solution to using the gym at Redstone Middle School, which Molnar said would cost the district $600,000 to $700,000 to demolish.
He said it would be less expensive in the long run to demolish it rather than keep it open for the use of its gymnasium. Molnar advised the board to think in terms of 30 to 40 years from now.
He also said they may want to consider having asbestos removed from the high school flooring, which will need to be removed in the next two to three years, anyway. “It’s not required right now, but the most realistic thing is to remove it,” he said.