The School!
Paulette Elementary
Article 38
|
|
|
 I have a secret and you know what that means? I'm telling it!First off the rumor is out that Paulette is not having computers again. Absolutely not true! I was there this week with Donald Tharp who will be installing the computers and networks. I don't know why this rumor surfaces from time to time, but this time we even had a teacher believing it. But right on the heals of this rumor came another one. This one says that Paulette will not have a library. Again, if you go back through my articles you will find pictures of the library. This leads me to believe that these rumor people don't have net access. But there is something about the library rumor that is true. Mr. Jason is hard on the trail of grants to stock his library. But what he  may
not be aware of (THE SECRET) is that the other schools are coming together for him.
MES and two other elementary schools are currently creating inventories
of their multiple copy library books. In fact Angie Burkhart and myself
are doing it at MES. We just finished an inventory of more than 6,000
AR ready books. We will be donating hundreds of books to Paulette. At MES this idea is spearheaded by our Principal Laura Larue. She is even splitting the money MES has for new books with the new school. She is interested in making sure that Paulette has complete sets of popular books. She uses Junie B. Jones as an example. Junie B. Jones is a series of books about a young girl's life in elementary school. They are excellent books and I must confess I have read them all. Mrs. Larue is building complete sets of books like these to donate to Paulette. Much like cooperation between the School Board and County Court, I see Principals coming together to help the new school. Roger Flatford over at Big Ridge as well as Sonya and Brian are doing their parts. With their efforts and Mr. Jason's attempts at new grants the kids at Paulette won't be left with a drought of books.  So what is new this week?Are we getting paved or aren't we? Is it going to rain or be dry? Those two questions are linked together hand in hand. Every time the paving is ready to start the weather guy predicts a monsoon. The contractor insists that it be dry when paving is started. This is to prevent soft places underneath the new asphalt. Asphalt is oil based and therefore extremely expensive. It is similar in cost to painting one's house with gasoline. It is going to cost a fortune to do it and you sure as heck want it to last. For many years runways at airports were made of concrete. In fact, many still are. But asphalt has properties that make it very useful for high traffic areas. The problem was that under heavy loads of landing aircraft the asphalt could not hold up. Then a guy comes along and says, we reinforce concrete with fiberglass and polypropylene, why couldn't we try it with asphalt? The idea turned into fabrics like Geo-Grid shown in Figure 1. This fabric when placed under asphalt makes it nearly as durable as concrete for a fraction of the price. The school system is asking our asphalt people to install this in Paulette's parking lots. Sure, we won't be landing 747's down there but every time a bus stops a heavy load is placed on the asphalt. Look anywhere there is a dumpster and you will find broken  asphalt. The truck comes in to
empty the dumpster and the weight and movement breaks the asphalt.The school system knows that asphalt is expensive and will get even more so in years to come. They have decided to go the extra cost of laying this fabric down with an eye toward the future. Not only does patching a drive get expensive and cause an eyesore, but it uses taxpayer resources. Every dollar saved in the long run can go for the debt or be used to help our children learn. I would rather $15 be used for school books as shoveled into a hole in the parking lot. Now, while I am on the subject of rumors there was one I seemed to have missed recently. It concerned the front entrance of the school. It seems that someone said that the metal under the awning was not even and that it was warped and wavy. In Figure 2 you can see the underneath of this awning and how straight it is. Much like other rumors there was some truth to this one too. When the awning was being built one piece of trim was warped and had a wave pattern to it. Brian Oaks noticed it and asked that it be added to the punch list. But before that could happen the piece was replaced. So yes there was a warped piece of metal trim (not the awning) and it was replaced. Now this week I saw an article in the Union County Shopper regarding the last Board meeting. In the article there was mention of the punch list, and I believe I have mentioned it before. I think we have both omitted explaining what this actually is. The typical construction contract agreement calls for the contractor, when he believes it to be so, to declare the construction project to have reached "substantial completion" and request a "pre-final" inspection. The architect then observes the project as a whole in a "walk around" inspection and creates a "punch list" of uncompleted or unsatisfactory work items owed to the project as defined by the contract agreement (which also incorporates the design documents). Final contractor payment is made when the punch list of items are completed to meet the project design required by the contract. As is right now there are several items on the punch list. These include things like a wrong color trim, a tile that is a little crooked etc. Figure 3 shows the new gym floor! White maple was used to cover the gym. This will be the first elementary school in the system to have a wood basketball court. The wood is placed onto a 1.5 inch hardwood subfloor. Below that is a half inch air gap to maintain dryness and below that a vapor barrier. This is the same construction that many college basketball courts use. The air gap will not allow warping of the floor! Now Figure 3 is a little blurry. This is because I had to take it through a window. The gym was closed and taped up to prevent anyone from messing up the floor while it cured. I could have gotten the door opened for the picture but after hearing Mr. Jason say what he would do to me if I messed up his floor...I opted the safe route. Next article we will examine the basketball court, the color scheme and striping in detail. |
|