Schools
From Parking Lots to Bathrooms, Birmingham Schools Spends Summer on Repairs
"Every dollar we spend now, in 10-15 years, we're saving $10," said the school district's manager of operations during a discussion of the district's summer construction projects.
Birmingham students returned to some renovated, re-done and refreshed school buildings this fall, the result of a summer-long construction blitz throughout the district.
"Every dollar we spend now, in 10-15 years, we're saving $10," said Steve King, manager of operations at Birmingham Public Schools at the Sept. 11 school board meeting.
In total, the district has spent a little less than $2 million on the projects, all of which came out of the district's building and site fund. The only sources of revenue for that fund comes from transfers from the district's general fund, as well as profits earned from the sale of major assets, such as the former alternative school building on Lincoln.
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However, without a permanent source of revenue for the building and site fund — and after the school board decided to eliminate transfers to the building and site fund for 2012-13 — Superintendent Daniel Nerad said Birmingham needs to have a discussion about how building projects will be funded in the future.
"We need to go beyond the next year, especially given the fact that there's not a sustainable revenue source, and figure out what that plan will be," Nerad told the school board last week. "We need to preserve the assets of this school system for students in the future."
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This summer's projects touched nearly every building in the district, ranging from renovated kindergarten classrooms to high school track repairs:
Beverly Elementary
- Kindergarten room renovations
Harlan Elementary
- Kindergarten room renovations
Pembroke Elementary
- Kindergarten room renovations
- Building envelope repairs
Bingham Farms Elementary
- Parking lot replacement
Pierce Elementary
- Parking lot replacement and reconfiguration
- Main office reconfiguration
- Skylight replacements
West Maple Elementary
- Student bathroom renovations
- Parking lot reconfigurations
- Gym floor replacement
Quarton Elementary
- Playfield improvements
- Building envelope repairs
Birmingham Covington School
- Student bathroom renovations
- Staff development room renovations
Derby Middle School
- Student bathroom renovations
- New rubber treads in stairwells
- Parking lot reconfiguration
- Building envelope repairs
Berkshire Middle School
- Student bathroom renovations
- New exterior paint
Seaholm High School
- Classroom carpet and paint replacement
- Courtyard terrace rebuild (still in process)
Groves High School
- Classroom carpet and paint replacement
- Track repairs
- Press box flooring replacement
- Building envelope repairs
- Auditorium door replacement
Midvale Early Childhood Center
- New exterior paint
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