High school renovation: Is it only a pipe dream?

To illustrate the urgent need for renovation at Culpeper County High School, Geary Parkinson, the school division’s director of maintenance and operations, pulled a corroded pipe from a plastic bag last week to show the CCHS renovation steering committee.

The 16-inch cooling pipe came from the school’s 400 wing, on the lower level, and is believed to be part of the original construction in 1969.

“It’s fortunate that my staff caught this when they did,” Parkinson said. “If it would have broken, we would have had major flooding with considerably more damage, but they caught the pinholes and cut out about a 14-foot section.”

The renovation committee is charged with exploring architectural evaluations for CCHS and finding ways to fund the multimillion-dollar project.

Until now, renovation committee members were banking on Culpeper voters to decide whether to fund the costly repairs.

But with the prolonged grim economy, renovation committee members agreed Thursday to hold off on the referendum request this year and try to educate the community first through photos and video, highlighting the renovation needs at CCHS.

“I think we need to just wait,” said committee chairwoman Elizabeth Hutchins, a Culpeper County school board member. “I think we can get stimulus money to help us get a little bit further and just see where that goes.”

The committee’s original plan was to recommend that the school board ask the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors to include the funding request for the renovations on the November ballot.

However, the committee doesn’t believe Culpeper voters would approve the renovation funding at this time due to the sour economy.

“I don’t think it’s going to be any better next year. From what we’re being told in Richmond, it’s going to be worse,” Hutchins said.

Committee member AnneMarie Steimel said community support is necessary before moving forward. “It would be devastating if it didn’t pass,” she said.

Hutchins suggested making a referendum request when the economy turns around.

“I don’t want to just move forward blindly with everybody having the financial difficulties that they have,” Hutchins said. “(With) the school system and every other agency facing the cuts that they’re facing and be out there asking the public for money, I just don’t think it’ll succeed that way. I would rather be successful when we put it out there.”

The deadline for the November ballot is usually August or September, according to Culpeper County Registrar Michele White.

The renovation would include replacing the school’s chillers, cooling tower and pumps, HVAC system, electrical, piping, mechanical equipment, plumbing, ductwork, flooring, lighting and fire alarm cabling — among other repairs.

How much would it cost?
Gary Watson, an architectural consultant with the Reston-based SHW Group, presented two renovation options to the committee last year.

The school board agreed to accept the committee’s recommendation last fall to move forward with a two-year, $20 million renovation plan rather than the $42 million multi-year option.

Meanwhile, school officials applied for a $5 million federal loan in November, but that didn’t come through. The interest-free loan through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 would have helped jumpstart the project.

Hunter Spencer, construction projects manager for CCPS, says there will probably be another opportunity to apply for more money in the future. Next time, Spencer said he’ll go about it differently and break down the project into pieces instead of an entire overhaul.

During the meeting, committee member Larry Aylor, a Culpeper County supervisor, suggested that Spencer notify U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., when the school division reapplies for another grant or loan.

“Before you submit it, get a couple of the school board (members) and the superintendent and contact him and make him aware of it where he can walk this thing through and apply the pressure where it needs to be,” Aylor said. “That was the impression that I got when I talked to him about that — he’d wished he’d known then he could have probably been some help.”

Superintendent Bobbi Johnson said when she learned other school divisions were being notified from their congressmen about approved loans, that’s when she said she knew CCPS should have included its local representatives in the application process.

“I realized then that was a card we should have played, just to ask for that help,” she said. “We definitely need to do that next time.”

Temporary fixes
For years, Parkinson has expressed concerns about the renovation needs at CCHS.

He said the pipe he was holding at Thursday’s regular meeting was part of the cooling system and could represent what the rest of the piping looks like throughout the building.

“It is typical of what you’ll find in a lot of classrooms,” he added.

Hutchins asked Parkinson if he would continue to apply “major Band-aids” to keep the system from failing.

Parkinson said he would.