As the vote to build or not build a new elementary school nears, some residents have asked about the condition of the Bromfield School, on Nextdoor and at School Building Committee forums. This week the Press looks at the current condition of the school, as seen through the eyes of Facilities Manager Mark Force, and at past and future capital projects and the history of additions and major renovations to the four-piece school.
The oldest part of the building was completed in 1963. Force told the Press in an interview and tour of Bromfield that the original building is structurally solid, with a “huge foundation” and cinder block interior walls. He added that there has been some settling over the years causing cracks in some places, but the cracks are minor and are repaired as needed. The interior walls of the middle school and the newest wing (on the south side of the building) are sheetrock, and Force said there is also some cracking in those walls now and then from settling.
The exterior walls are all original to each portion of the building as is the insulation used in those walls (See building history below). Force said he has seen inside the walls of the new south-side wing and the middle school wing, and they have a vapor barrier and composition material insulation, as well as fiberglass in the cavities.
The heating system is forced hot water along the walls and ceiling, except for a few leftover unit ventilators in some rooms. According to Force, some areas of the building are sometimes too hot or too cold, particularly on the south side of the building during the summer months. For the most part, though, he believes the system is working well and keeping up with demand.
The HVAC system includes two boilers that were installed in 2010, and the burners are fueled by gas. Rooftop units supply air conditioning, heat recovery, and air handling. The air handling units and heat recovery units replace the volume of air in the building with conditioned air from outside. Two rooftop units were just replaced, and four additional ones were recently installed.
More HVAC and LED lighting to come
The long-term capital plan calls for two more units over the next five years. There are carbon dioxide sensors outside the gym and the auditorium so that the air handlers don’t need to run constantly. Air conditioning is provided in the main office, the lounge, the faculty room, guidance offices, and the library, and the long-term capital plan includes adding air conditioning to the south side of the building in fiscal 2021.
The Harvard Energy Advisory Committee has done a lot over the years, procuring grants to do energy updates in the schools, Force said. Last year, the committee got a grant to switch the lights in the main hallways of Bromfield to LED lights, and another grant to switch more of the building to LED lights is expected in fiscal 2020, he said.
Most of the plumbing inside the walls matches the age of the various parts of the building. Force said he replaces pipes as needed, and while there are no lead pipes as far as he knows, lead was used in plumbing solder until 1986, so that may be in the piping in the original part of the building and the middle school wing. The existing hot water tank is corroded inside and needs to be replaced, and an article in this year’s Town Meeting warrant asks for $28,000 for that replacement. The electrical wires, as with the plumbing, match the age of the part of the building they are in. Force said the system is meeting the demands of the school so far, with a tripped breaker only every now and then.
Most of the roof was replaced with a rubber roof in 2006, except for the roof on the new wing, which was installed in 2001. Force said there are roof leaks, typically around ductwork or vents in the ceiling, especially in the middle school wing. On the day the Press visited, a few ceiling tiles outside the auditorium had been removed to address a leak. Force said the roof is inspected annually by a company that specializes in roof repair, and patches are done as needed. When asked if a new roof might be on the horizon, Force said he thought it would be “a ways off.”
Vinyl floors hold up well
The floors in the building are mostly vinyl composition tile, which Force said has held up well over the years, but he is gradually replacing those tiles with new ones. He said the sections that are “on grade,” where the concrete under the floor is sitting directly on soil, get moisture underneath them, which causes the tiles to come loose. Force said he just received $20,000 to replace the floor tiles in the lower level of the middle school wing, and there is $100,000 in the fiscal 2022 long-term capital plan for flooring replacement.
Tile replacement requires following asbestos abatement procedures, Force said, because the mastic that was used under the tiles contains asbestos. The school follows the regulations of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, which include an asbestos management plan and an inspection of asbestos-containing materials every three years.
There are still some carpeted areas of the building, such as the library and the guidance offices. Force is currently replacing the carpet in the library with easier-to-maintain carpet tiles. The gym floor was resurfaced four years ago and is refinished every year. The bleachers in the gym are old and difficult to repair because the parts are hard to find. Bleacher replacement is in the long-term capital plan for 2020.
Code compliance
The 2001 addition/renovation required the entire building to be brought up to the 2001 code for accessibility. Most of the plumbing fixtures in the building were replaced at that time. The bathrooms have been in the process of being renovated as the budget allows over the past few years, and this year’s warrant asks for $50,000 to renovate the remaining two bathrooms in the school. There are two elevators in the building. The outside ramp to the middle school wing is currently in poor condition and would likely be considered inaccessible, but the long-term capital plan for fiscal 2020 calls for it to be replaced or repaired. The building is currently assessed at about $14 million, so a renovation exceeding $4.2 million would trigger meeting current accessibility codes throughout the building.
Sprinklers were installed in the 2001 addition, but at the time of that addition/renovation project, fire codes did not require sprinklers to be installed in the rest of the building. Some areas did get sprinklers as part of that renovation, however, including the cafeteria, the area outside the gym, the lobby, and the science classroom area in the middle school wing. A new fire alarm system was installed throughout the building. As with accessibility, a major renovation of over $4.2 million would trigger meeting current fire codes that would include installing sprinklers throughout the building.
Auditorium needs renovation
The auditorium is in dire need of renovations, according to drama teacher Martha Brooks. The request for funding for the first phase, $100,000, is in this year’s Town Meeting warrant, and an additional $150,000 is in the long-term capital plan. On Brooks’ list is replacing the three glaring floodlights in the auditorium with new houselights as well as new stage lighting and lighting controls, which still run on software on floppy disks. She would also like to fix the lights in the arms of the aisle seats, which stopped working when wires were cut during the installation of the ramp in the 2001 renovation. In addition, the curtains are torn and have areas of dry rot, the carpeting in the aisles is worn out, and the stage needs a new, easier-to-maintain floor. Brooks also hopes that the seats, many of which are broken, can be replaced in the near future, and that storage areas and a separate work area for building scenery could be added.
According to Chef Paul Correnty, the kitchen is large enough and in good shape. He said he replaces kitchen equipment in both schools as needed from money raised by his soup sales and from breakfast sales and the vending machines in the cafeteria. He added that those sales bring in about $15,000 per year, and most pieces of kitchen equipment cost about that much. The kitchen was renovated as part of the 2001 addition project, but Correnty said if the kitchen were to be renovated at this point, code upgrades would be required. He added that the kitchen is badly in need of a new walk-in refrigerator to replace one that is at least 30 years old. Correnty said the walk-in isn’t large enough, the door doesn’t latch properly, and the maintenance company that services the unit told him it should be replaced before it dies because parts are no longer made for it. He plans to submit a capital request for $50,000 to $60,000 to replace the walk-in next year.
Bromfield, along with the library, uses a sewage lift station to carry waste to the holding tanks at the elementary school. The system was installed during the 2001 addition/renovation when a sewage treatment plant to service the schools was built. That system is on the long-term capital plan to be upgraded in 2020.
And finally, the science rooms have been upgraded over the past few years, and the last science room upgrade is scheduled to be done this year. The long-term capital plan also includes installation of card access systems for external doors, an internet protocol network clock, upgrades to the computer network, replacement of sections of lockers, and renovation of the locker rooms over the next five years. Total capital requests for Bromfield over the next four fiscal years (not including this year) total $1,918,000, an average of about $500,000 per year. The full list of long-term capital requests for the Bromfield School is available in the Town Warrant on page 21.
The Bromfield School:
History of major additions and renovations
The Bromfield School consists of four parts that were built over time: the original school, the middle school wing (to the west), the auditorium, and the “new wing” (to the south). The last two additions included major renovations to the existing school.
The original junior and senior high school that we now call the Bromfield School was completed in 1963 for about $900,000. It consisted of the portion of the school that contains the lobby, the cafeteria, and classrooms that extended about halfway back to the current south side of the school. There was a gym, but it was not connected to the building. The School Committee knew at the time Bromfield was built that a middle school would be needed in the next few years.
In 1968, the town voted $875,000 (by paper ballot) to add a middle school wing and office space to Bromfield, and to enlarge the gym.The work was completed for the fall of 1970, and grades five through eight moved into the new wing. In 1972, the fifth grade moved back into the elementary school because the middle school was too small. In 1974, the tennis courts and athletic fields were added.
In 1987, the town approved the $14 million project that included the new portion of the elementary school as well as the addition of the Bromfield auditorium and about $4 million of renovations to the Bromfield School. The renovations included connecting the gym to the school, system upgrades, a new roof, a new library, and new lockers. In addition, the movable partitions in the middle school were replaced with soundproof walls. An additional half gym was originally in the plan for Bromfield, but it was taken out to reduce costs. The work was completed in 1990.
In 2001, a project that included the addition of a new wing on the south side of the school, major renovations to the rest of the building, and a new septic treatment plant to service both the Bromfield School and the elementary school was approved by the town for a total cost of $17.5 million. Renovations to the existing school included a new HVAC system with rooftop units, new windows, a new music suite, new lighting fixtures, and code accessibility upgrades, including new plumbing fixtures throughout most of the school. The board decided not to replace the roof or skylights in the building because architects from Tappe Associates estimated they would “last at least another 10 years.” The renovation was mostly complete in 2002.
In 2005, a Special Town Meeting was called to address various problems with the 2001 Bromfield renovation. Control boxes on the new HVAC rooftop units were failing, there were leaks around the new windows and light fixtures, and the cafeteria roof was leaking. Steve Colwell, a member of the Finance Committee then as well as now, was quoted in the June 27, 2005 issue of the Harvard Post as saying the new rooftop HVAC units seemed to be sinking into the flat, rubberized roof, creating pools where the leaks were, but it wasn’t clear if that was the cause of the leaks. The town approved about $450,000 for the repairs, and sought recourse from the contractors.
In 2006, the town approved $1,550,000 to replace portions of the roof at the Bromfield School. Of that amount, $300,000 was designated to replace the cafeteria and science wing roofs; money approved in 2005 to repair the cafeteria roof was returned to the stabilization fund. The other roof portions to be replaced for $1,250,000 were not specified in the Town Meeting warrant, but a report from Gale Associates of Boston in 2005 had recommended replacing the roof over the middle school, gym, and auditorium, also due to problems from the 2001 renovation. The Press could not ascertain with certainty which roofs were replaced.
Sources: Town annual reports and past editions of the Harvard Post.
