Some Washoe schools get 'Extreme Makeover'
By Brian Rosenthal
June 21, 2009
When students return to Veterans Memorial Elementary School this fall, they will see new carpeting, windows, furniture, sinks, phones, cubbies, cabinets, electrical outlets and white boards.
"They're redoing everything," Principal Gloria Geil said. "Everything is going to be brand new."
The rehabilitation at Veterans is among 121 construction projects at 52 Washoe County public schools this summer, totaling an estimated $39.8 million, officials said.
Although the district has construction projects every year, this summer's amount is "way more than usual," district spokesman Steve Mulvenon said. Last summer, the district spent $14 million on repairs.
The money comes from rollover bond sales approved by voters in 2002, Mulvenon said.
That year, voters authorized the 96-school, 63,000-student district to issue bonds for various projects through 2012, as long as a similar amount of bonds were retired to keep the property tax rate at the 2002 level.
"These are the types of projects that we told the public back in 2002 needed to be done," Mulvenon said. "They're the kinds of projects that are absolutely essential."
'Extreme Makeover'
About half of the money, nearly $20 million, will be used for repairs at 10 elementary schools such as Veterans, Mulvenon said.
"It's our version of 'Extreme Makeover,'" he said. "We completely strip the school, every piece of furniture goes out, we pull out all the carpeting, get rid of all the flooring and redo everything."
The goal is to bring the schools to modern standards, said Elizabeth Wright, director of accountability, finance and public relations. Wright said that more than half the schools in the district are more than 40 years old.
The repairs are sorely needed, said Geil, who has been principal at Veterans for eight years. The 60-year-old Reno school with 430 students, most on free or reduced lunch programs, has never seen a large-scale repair project.
"We've been begging for new windows for 11 years," said Geil, gesturing to the old-fashioned windows clouded by years of use. "Our walls are leaking."
Smaller projects include interactive white board and security TV installations, roofing and flooring maintenance, network server and fire alarm upgrades, lock replacement and gym bleacher work, Wright said.
Almost all of the projects, including five of the "extreme makeovers," will be finished by the end of summer, she said.
"If the contractors have to work weekends and nights, they're doing it to make that time frame work," Wright said.
Educational and safety benefits
The building improvements will have a significant impact on student achievement and security, officials said.
Better lighting, temperature control and ventilation has been shown to increase student attention and learning, said Gwen Marchand, an assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The lack of environmental distractions is especially important for those learning English as a second language, Geil said.
Better building conditions also should lead to increased student attendance and work ethic, Wright said.
"Then they're proud," she said. "They feel valued, they feel like they're in an important place and doing important work."
Studies have proven that technological upgrades, especially interactive white boards, make a difference.
Positive educational results have been seen at Rita Cannan Elementary School, which last summer became the first school in the district to undergo drastic rehabilitation, Mulvenon said.
"It's been wonderful," said Luz Mendoza, who has four children at the Reno school. "I've been in the classroom, and it's helping a lot. (The students) can understand more of what the teacher is telling them, and they pay more attention."
Mendoza credited the changes for her third-grade son Salvador Garcia improving his reading this year and fifth-grade daughter Veronica Garcia maintaining straight A's for six months.
Lock replacement, security TVs and fence construction will increase security, Wright said.
"Back when they built these schools, security wasn't quite the issue it was today," she said. "The way some of our locks are right now, the teacher has to go outside and lock the doors and then go back outside. That's a bad situation because a lot of times, the bad guys are on the outside."
Local stimulus
All contractors involved in the projects have a Nevada license, and most of the workers and suppliers are probably from the Reno-Sparks area, officials said.
"These are companies that will be laying off less people or maybe bringing people back," Mulevenon said. "It's sort of our own local stimulus package."
Job losses in construction and manufacturing were the main reason for a 0.2 percent rise in unemployment in Washoe County from April to May, according to a Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation report released this week.
More repairs needed
Despite the large amount of construction this summer, district officials said they don't have nearly enough funding to do all the projects that they'd like to.
"We're absolutely not going to fix everything," Wright said. "We will never have enough money to do everything we need to do. Not even close."
She said that by 2012, when the rollover bond expires, the district will be able to obtain about $100 million for construction projects but will need about $1.3 billion.
Last November, voters rejected 92,375 to 76,599 a quarter-cent sales tax increase and an increase in motor vehicle registration fees to raise enough money for the district to sell bonds of $393 million for capital projects.
The district is still disappointed with that vote but is dealing with the gap in funding it caused, Mulvenon said. It plans to ask for more funds in the future.
But for now, officials are excited about this summer's projects.
"When my kids see all the changes when they go back, I'm sure they'll be ecstatic," said Amanda Deras, who has three children at Veterans. "They're going to love it."