Sonoma spiffs schools

When Sonoma Valley students return to school Monday, they’ll find campuses that have been spiffed up over the summer.

New paint, new pavement in the parking lots, floors cleaned and polished, new flooring, new roofing and in some instances new buildings at a cost of about $3.8 million. Back in February, the district budgeted $5.75 million for the projects, but some of the items came in under budget.

At the February meeting, then-Deputy Superintendent Justin Frese said that there would be work at every school in the district.

“We want to make an impact on how the school looks,” Frese said. “Last year, we redid the high school parking lot and received a lot of complements.”

And he said that the district is going to catch up on maintenance over the next three summers.

The district used some of the money it got back from the state as part of the solar project – money that had to be used for maintenance.

“We reinvested the money on our campuses for modernization,” said John Bartolome, the district’s chief business officer. “Every school is getting something done even if its new paint and new asphalt.”

Two of the bigger projects this summer were at the Sonoma Charter School and Dunbar Elementary.

At the Charter School, two of the older portables were disposed of and two new buildings were erected which included a new administrative office and sidewalks at a cost of about $1.1 million.

And Dunbar got a new kitchen, new paint, paving and a new roof, although the kitchen might not be finished until mid-September.

Adele Harrison Middle School received flooring, painting and two new portables. Altimira Middle School also received flooring, paving and a portable. El Verano got flooring, painting, paving and a portable. Flowery got roofing, flooring, painting and paving. Prestwood got flooring, painting and paving. Sassarini got painting and paving and Woodland Star Charter for flooring and painting.

“At the high school,” said Tony Albini, the district’s maintenance chief, “Golton Hall got a new roof and there’s new asphalt in the parking lots.”

And the district’s maintenance crew had help with some of the spiffing as 41 high school students were employed for a three-week period again this summer.

Of the 41, 15 were returning workers from last year, and Albini said there were more than 160 applications for the 41 slots. “The kids get a sense of pride in what they’re doing,” he said. “We had them doing landscaping and painting and … They got a lot of good experience.”

Bartolome agreed and said he hopes the district can use the student workers again next summer. The students were paid minimum wage to work eight hours a day, five days a week for the three weeks.

“I’m excited to have the campuses looking great for the start of the school year,” Bartolome said. “Everything’s on schedule.”