About 30 Harvard residents toured Hildreth Elementary School last Saturday to see firsthand some of the problems that beset the building and led the School Building Committee to conclude that a new school would be the best solution. Building tours were led by Superintendent Linda Dwight, Principal Josh Myler, third-grade teacher Dawn-Marie Ayles, art teacher Sharon Correnty, and special education teacher Marisa Khurana.
Water, water everywhere
Before breaking into small groups for the tour, the residents assembled in the school library. Myler pointed out the ceiling tiles, many of which were brown with water stains. Those stained tiles, Myler said, were replaced every summer and once during the school year as well. So the staining visible Saturday was recent, and it was worst around the edges of the ceiling.
If rain is predicted over a weekend, Myler told the group, the school library staff puts tarps over the computers in the room to protect them from dripping water. He described trying to stop the leaks in the 1988 roof as “playing whack-a-mole,” despite regular repair efforts by Mark Force, the school facilities manager.
Leaks in the cafeteria ceiling have left tarry black stripes on the walls. In a heavy rain, Myler said, tiles may last only a day before soaking through and sagging under the water. Some leaks are so persistent that tiles have been replaced with grates during summers, so that the water can just run into trash cans placed below.
More water problems were apparent on the second floor in a classroom that looks out over an area of the library roof. Water on that roof sometimes pools deep enough that it has seeped in and damaged the interior wall.
Any renovation of the 1988 building would include a new roof. However, the building’s steel structure prevents redesigning the roof, so it’s likely that problems such as ice dams would continue, said building project architect Emily Grandstaff-Rice, who was also on the tour.
Heating and ventilation are other major problem areas for the current school building. Residents on the tour noticed big temperature swings from one part of the building to another, even though the outdoor temperature was comparatively mild.
The high temperature record in a classroom was 94 degrees on a December day, Myler said. The more normal range, he explained, was between 50 and 80 degrees.
The univent wall heaters in each classroom circulate hot water from a boiler in the kindergarten wing. They also draw in outside air for ventilation, heating it as it comes in. Those heaters have reached the end of their useful life, Myler said. Their fan motors are dying, with five motors replaced this year. One classroom is currently without heat because a motor died and its replacement has not yet arrived. Classroom thermostats no longer work because they used a hydraulic pressure system that has failed over the years. Turning the heaters on and off manually (for which teachers must poke scissors through the heater covers) eventually breaks those switches as well.
Even worse, on really cold days the outside air coming in through the vents can freeze the hot water pipes in the heater, Myler said. The blockage stops the water from circulating and shuts down the heat throughout the whole building. When that happens, teachers and administrators must try to find the frozen area somewhere along the system, going from room to room using heat guns or hair dryers to warm the pipes until they succeed.
Replacing the univent heaters with a new central heating system would require substantial interior changes, because the current building was not designed to accommodate the necessary ductwork, the building committee has reported.
Seismic codes, accessibility, and fire safety
While leaks and heating problems were evident throughout the building, there were less obvious problems as well. As the group walked through the halls, Grandstaff-Rice pointed out the concrete blocks that make up the lower six feet or so of the interior walls. Those block walls, she said, are not connected to the building in any structural way. (In effect, they are just freestanding space dividers.) That construction method does not meet current seismic codes, Grandstaff-Rice said, and when renovations exceed half a public building’s value, the building must be brought up to those codes.
Other code issues that would need to be addressed in any effort to bring the 1988 building up to current standard include wheelchair accessibility and fire safety. The ramp up to the cafeteria is too long between landings, Grandstaff-Rice pointed out, and some doors are located in places where a person in a wheelchair would not be able to open them without the addition of electric switches.
The school would also need fire sprinklers to meet current code. And if the power went out in an emergency, the halls would be pitch dark because they have no natural light, especially on the first floor, Grandstaff-Rice said. (Emergency lights are present but few in number.)
‘No one of these things tipped the scale’
Today’s schools focus more and more on small-group work for students, Myler told the residents on the tour. And one reason that Hildreth Elementary School students do well academically is that the school intervenes quickly with extra individual help when a student is falling behind in a subject. But learning assistants and teachers need places where they can work with just a few students at a time—preferably quiet spaces where students can concentrate on the subject that’s difficult for them, Myler emphasized.
Currently, one room in the kindergarten wing is set up for a maximum of five small groups to work at once, which is problematic because of distractions and noise from other groups. Other small groups share an office space on the second floor.
The kindergarten wing itself, of course, has long been the focus of discussion, with the mold problem that requires closing off the whole wing and bringing in workers in hazmat suits if the walls need to be opened for any reason. Replacing one sink cost about $8,000 because of the precautions required, Myler said. While some K-wing rooms still have working sinks, in others the sinks are broken and have not been repaired. Classrooms have a layer of particle board covering the walls to make sure that tacks don’t puncture the membrane sealing in the mold.
Both Dwight and Myler emphasized that recent air-quality tests in the K-wing have been satisfactory; if tests should ever show high mold readings, the wing would have to be sealed off. In that case, the school would have to find space for four kindergarten sections and the special education classes in the main building.
Other problematic spaces include the kitchen, the cafeteria, and the gym. The HES kitchen was originally planned for serving food brought over from Bromfield, not for preparing food on site. It is about half the size it should be to prepare food for 450 kids, according to Grandstaff-Rice.
The cafeteria itself is only big enough for one grade of students to eat at a time, as Dwight and Myler have said in several meetings. Needing six lunch periods means that some kids have lunch at 10:40 a.m. while others don’t eat until 1 p.m.
When the people on the school tour reached the gym, Myler said the middle school teams—both boys and girls—practice at the HES gym, as do Harvard Athletic Association teams. Some middle school games are held there, too, even though the court is 10 feet shorter than regulation size for that age group. Myler pointed out the padding that has been added to the walls on all four sides because of actual and potential injuries to players. Plans for a new school allow for a larger gym that also has room for some spectator seating.
While explaining that the elementary school building has drawbacks, Myler also emphasized that no single problem caused the School Building Committee to vote for new construction over renovation. “No one of these things tipped the scale,” he said. Rather, it was their cumulative effect that led to the committee’s choice.
