SVUSD to spend $2M

This summer, the Sonoma Valley Unified School District will be spending another $2-plus million on parking lots, roofs and floors among other maintenance needs.

At its April 14 meeting, the school board approved the measure, which will be coming out facilities funds, not out of the general fund.

Tenada Dale, from Counterpoint Construction Services, the district’s construction management company, told the board there’s whole list of projects this summer which includes a new portable at Altimira for special education, deferred maintenance, window covering, setting priorities for the master plans, data and technology upgrades and infrastructure planning, Flowery path and parking lot planning, planning for the recycled water project, furniture pilot planning and campus monument sign planning.

“We’re continuing on the deferred maintenance,” she said. “Last year was the first of the five-year plan.”

She said she and Toni Albini, the district’s operations manager, went to each of the campuses assessing what needed to be done this year especially with flooring and roofing projects.

“Some of the floors at Altimira are 25 years old,” she said.

Altimira, Flowery and Dunbar will get floor replacement, not necessarily in every building, but where it’s needed. “Some of the floors are starting to fail,” Dale told the board.

Dunbar, Flowery, Prestwood and the district bus yard will receive pavement replacement or repairs. “The biggest project is at Prestwood,” Dale said. “The flow of traffic is awful. And we’re going to make the parking in one of the lots perpendicular instead of slanted, and we’ll add four more stalls.”

The roofing projects will be more extensive than just patching. The estimated costs include, Alrimira portable, $356,112; the flooring projects, $348,941; the paving projects $272,253; and the roofing project, $1,073,174 for an estimated cost of $2,050,480.

The firm is also working on setting priorities for the master plans and will be back at the board’s May meeting with the procedure for setting priorities.

“The number one priority will be ‘warm, safe and dry’ projects not already completed,” she said.

The district is meeting with consultants to discuss the monument signs for each site. But Dale said this is “very early in the process.”

The board heard from track coach Linda Patterson and some members of the public who complained about the condition of the track at the high school. The track was resurfaced 11 years ago, but it only had about a 10-year lifespan and at this point, the track is unusable for any meets. The high school is holding home meets at other schools in the county because the track has deteriorated so badly.

“Some of the cracks go across seven lanes,” Patterson said. “It’s unsafe to use the long jump because of gophers.” She also pointed out that the infield is also unusable because of gopher holes.

“Patching is just a Band-Aid,” Patterson said.

The board instructed Dale to look into costs on what could be done to the track. But it’s on the list of things to be replaced – and moved – as part of the high school master plan.