Early August Update on CCS Construction

Thank you to Jen Roth, principal at Charlotte Central School, for providing this update on the construction at CCS. 

Here are some new details about the work happening around CCS for the last two weeks. Behind the scenes, I’d like to thank our entire custodial crew (May, Audrey, Ester, Jeremy, Alex, Mike H., Jack S. and Mason M.) for using every possible minute to polish up spaces in the building to make it safe and welcoming for everyone.

The placement of the water storage tanks has been completed. Concrete is getting poured to start building out the new utility room and to add the foundation from the front porch on the 1939 building.

 

Crews are updating the utility access to the front of the building and running conduit through the first floor of the building.

 

  

Second Floor classrooms are nearly polished. Carpets have been installed in the planned spaces. Some painting has been completed to brighten things up. Worn down shelves were given a coat of paint where possible. Final touches to the second floor will include waxing the green hallway, shampoo the carpets and finalizing any IT installations.

First floor rooms are still under construction. Switches for fire have been updated and the sprinkler pipes have been placed. Old electrical and tech lines are being pulled to align with necessary codes. A crew is going through this week to hang ceiling tile grids. Then the spaces will be turned over to the CCS crew for cleaning and the placement of furniture.

  

 

 

The bus parking lot is coated with blacktop and setting. The last step is to paint the lines to be ready for the buses.

 

 

  

Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding. Things are coming together!

CCS Construction Update

For those that live near the Charlotte Central School or drive by it, you may have noticed new activity. Construction is underway! During the summer of 2021, Phase One of the work improved ventilation, replaced siding and insulation, and new thermally-improved windows and doors were installed to provide more efficiency. Now, we're in Phase Two, which divides the life safety and code compliance project over two summers. This part of the project is funded through a bond approved by voters in CVSD towns in March of 2022. Beginning on Monday, June 19th, the front portion of the building was gated off to allow for first steps in the excavation process. Here are some of the exciting things that are underway. 

Contractors are making room for five 4000-gallon water tanks that will feed the new fire suppression system.

Underground utilities are being upgraded for electrical service. A new generator system will be installed to allow for full function of the building if we lose power.

All ceilings on the first floor have been removed so electrical updates can be made and fire suppression lines can be extended into all spaces.

For many of our community members, weaving through the potholes of the bus lot is familiar. This summer, we are reconstructing and paving the lot and creating a smooth parking area that will accommodate buses and community members. While that paving project is underway, the “bus lot” will be closed to community traffic. 

Please access Pease Mountain trails through the lot on the east end of the building.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as the work progresses and we prepare the building and grounds for a safe start of the next school year. 

Gary Marckres Named CVSD’s Chief Operations Officer

 

Mr. Gerald (Gary) Marckres has been appointed Chief Operations Officer (COO) for the Champlain Valley School District (CVSD). Gary is replacing Jeanne Jensen, who is stepping down as COO to work on special projects for the district. Mr. Marckres will begin his leadership duties on July 1, 2022.

Mr. Mackres comes to CVSD from the South Burlington School District, where he has been the Director of Operations and Financial Management for four years. He also was Chair of the Grand Isle School/Champlain Islands School District’s board of directors for many years. Gary served in the Army National Guard and was Command Sergeant Major, Commandant of the Regional Training Institute, and Operations Lead. He states that “the assignments as Commandant of a regional training and education institute closely correlate to a superintendent role in a public setting. The financial management, accreditation, security, facilities management, food service, and staffing responsibility provided the direct experience which earned me the position I currently hold.” He is a graduate of Post University with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

CVSD’s chief operations officer oversees areas not directly related to academics, including transportation, facilities and grounds, food service, technology, human resources, and finance.

Gary shared this with the district, “I am very excited to join and work with the CVSD leadership team, staff, and students in July! I believe this is a great opportunity to continue my career of service in one of the most respected school districts in Vermont. I am looking forward to getting to know and work with CVSD's dedicated staff and hope that we can continue to advance the work that Jeanne Jensen and her team did so well over the past several years.”

Superintendent Rene Sanchez shared, “Mr. Mackres is a wonderful addition to our leadership team. His previous work in finance and operations in South Burlington will enable him to step into the position and be successful.”

We look forward to welcoming Gary on July 1.

CVSD Facilities - Summer Work A Success!

The summer of 2021 was a busy construction season for our facilities management team. We extend a special thank you to Chris Giard, District Facilities Manager, for his help in facilitating this work.

• We’ve finished a complete kitchen renovation at SCS including new equipment for food preparation and vastly improved ventilation in the kitchen and cafeteria.

SCS kitchen

• The windows in Hinesburg’s White Building have been replaced, greatly improving the natural light, and the 7th and 8th-grade wing on the 2nd floor has new ventilation for air quality and dehumidification.

HCS before

      

HCS after

 

• CVU’s track has been renovated, allowing the school to continue to host meets and another field has been upgraded for better drainage. Inside, windows were replaced in the 1981 wing and the carpet has been replaced in the library.

CVU track

CVU library

• Allen Brook is in the middle of an architectural study to determine how best to fine-tune the building for use as a Prek-2 school while making HVAC and energy efficiency upgrades.

• And of course, CCS has undergone some long overdue deferred maintenance both inside and out to improve energy efficiency and air quality. The construction team is now working on the front facade which is starting to look pretty amazing.

CCS facade

All of this was managed alongside the annual deep clean of our buildings: washing and waxing of floors, window cleaning, and furniture repair and replacement. Kudos to the outstanding men and women on our facilities and custodial staff who worked all summer to get the buildings ready for the school year.

Charlotte In Their Classrooms!

We are very happy to report that after a long summer of construction work at Charlotte Central School, as of today, all students and teachers are in their classroom spaces. 

The work this summer primarily focused on renovating the “skin” of the central classroom wing in order to improve energy efficiency, and to improve heating and ventilation in classroom spaces. There were only a few minor delays.

Last week, when school began for students, only the K-4 students and their teachers could utilize their classroom spaces. The middle school spaces were not quite ready due to a delay in the arrival of the last air handling units.

Educators of 5th -8th grade students planned an experiential week, August 25-27, that became the foundation for an amazing school year. Last week provided opportunities for creativity, cooperation, team-building, and problem-solving. Each class had a “home-base” in the school. There were stations set up around the campus that provided students opportunities to dive into their passions and to discover some new experiences including engineering challenges, literature, cooperative game, hikes up Pease Mountain, disk golf, journalism, tie-dying T-shirts, Challenge by Choice, art activities, and space and time for mindful breaks.

With one final delay that meant they couldn't access their classroom spaces until Tuesday of this week, middle school students worked remotely on Monday. The rainy weather played a large part in that decision as without the ability to be outside, the district was concerned about COVID air quality and distancing protocols. Families were notified on Friday about the change in plans for Monday.

Today, all CCS students were back in classrooms and settling in for a great school year. There are many to thank for making this possible - from the custodial crew working 7-days a week, to flexible teachers and staff, food service staff, IT staff, and especially the principals. And of course, families who supported the effort and their students as well! 

There's additional work that will be happening after hours in the building and outside over the next few weeks, but there's a lot to celebrate today! 

Here's a sampling of some beginning-of-year photos from Charlotte Central School.

4th grade music

5th grade limbo

A class meeting

lunch outside

Middle schoolers INSIDE their classroom today!

Co-Principal Jen Roth lends a helping hand

CVSD Capital Construction Bond on the Ballot

On the ballot for Town Meeting Day, March 3, not only will there be articles about the school district’s proposed budget, fund balance, and school buses, but this year there will also be an article about the proposed Capital Construction Bond. We will be providing more information about the other articles in upcoming posts, but we wanted to share details about the proposed bond with our communities as soon as possible. We hope to answer some immediate questions below. More information about the proposed budget and bond can be found on the Budget page of the CVSD website, www.cvsdvt.org/budget.

What is the process used to determine capital improvements? How does it get determined what work fits in the regular school district operations budget and what needs to be on a bond?

Long-range capital maintenance plans and priorities for each school are developed and refreshed by the district’s Property Services Team. These plans are reviewed each September with building principals for completeness on maintenance items and any additions related to instructional delivery

The CVSD Property Services Manager and district COO review the list in October determining which items can be:

• funded through the operational budget
• funded with existing construction funds
• large projects grouped for potential biennial bond requests

Priorities are reviewed with facilities managers and building administration.

The entire 5-year plan is reviewed with the Finance and Facilities committee during budget development. A summary of the capital projects is reviewed with the Board during the operations budget presentation.


CVSD is a consolidated district. What does that mean for homeowners in each of our towns?

As a consolidated district, residents in all CVSD towns share responsibility for all district facilities; approving and paying for all bonds. Deferring these necessary maintenance repairs will only delay them to another year when they will be more expensive. The proposed bond is projected to cost a homeowner $10 per year for each $100,000 of assessed value before accounting for income sensitivity adjustments or CLA. (Common Level of Appraisal)


What is included in the proposed bond? How are schools in all of our towns impacted?

• At Hinesburg, we are addressing deteriorating parking lots and sidewalks, and upgrading the air quality on the second floor of the main building.
• At CVU, the bond will fund energy efficiency improvements in the 1981 wing, overdue field drainage improvements on two natural grass fields and a resurfacing of the 15-year-old track.
• At Shelburne Community School, funds will be used to bring the cafeteria’s kitchen into compliance with current code and to repave the parking and drop off / pick-up lot on School Street.
• And at the Allen Brook School, the bond will fund a fire alarm system upgrade to current life/safety code and additional multiple improvements needed to improve security.

The remainder of the bond will focus on critical repairs and upgrades at Charlotte Central School needed to maintain the health of students and staff and eliminating an astonishing waste of energy. The project consists of sealing the envelope of the main classroom wing – new windows, doors, insulation and cladding – and replacing the existing outdated air handling units with high-efficiency energy recovery ventilators. We encourage everyone to go to the CVSD Capital Construction website and view the presentation shared on January 21, 2020, by architects Dore & Whittier, along with other materials. There you will find infrared photos where you can almost see gallons of fuel oil being wasted as heat flows out through single-pane windows and uninsulated structural beams.

Additional information can be found on the Capital Construction website, linked from the CVSD Budget page. www.cvsdvt.org/budget


Why are voters just hearing about this bond proposal now?

The CVSD Board has committed to putting the district on a path to a sustainable capital funding strategy to minimize costs and stabilize tax impacts. After a period of catching up, the vision is to present district voters with consistent, small investment requests – stewardship bonds – prioritized to eliminate the need for the large construction projects we have seen in the past, and our neighbors are experiencing now. In the short term though, the investment requests will be a bit higher as we clear up deferred maintenance problems.

Our physical assets are managed by a team of highly-skilled, and very busy, facilities managers. One of the CVSD School Board’s first acts after consolidation was to centralize the facilities team in order to achieve operational efficiencies and take advantage of economies of scale. The board also addressed how to manage and prioritize capital needs.

While Shelburne Community School and Williston Central School had significant deferred maintenance problems that were addressed with their recent bonds, the CVSD board has directed that we respect the tax burden already in place in our community by holding the cost of the first phase of the Charlotte project to a minimum. We are not alone in facing the reality of a backlog of deferred maintenance as Burlington ($70M), Winooski ($58M), South Burlington ($209M) and in fact, the rest of Vermont are all struggling to maintain school facilities in the face of the 13-year moratorium on school construction aid. We are grateful that our own needs are on a much smaller scale.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Please direct any further questions to the CVSD School Board cvsdboard@cvsdvt.org

Summer Work on Buildings and Grounds

The devoted and talented CVSD maintenance and facilities crews have been hard at work over the summer. Here's an update on some of the work that was done. We thank them for their hard work and commitment to ensuring that our buildings and grounds are safe and welcoming for students and families. Some schools were able to supply us with more detailed updates than others, but rest assured with the knowledge that there has been a tremendous amount of great work done in all CVSD locations!


Charlotte:

Chris and the entire crew have been working tirelessly to prepare our school for our big opening only days away. This summer they have really outdone themselves:

• 7/8 Learning Center- Updo!
• New ceiling tiles have been put into several classrooms.
• We replaced the water line to the building then a couple of weeks later the well pump died. So we have a new main water system at this point. The water has been tested and all was good.
• The band room had a makeover, including new paint and now has some character. It also got a new floor. 
• There is a new ADA ramp and stairs at the east entrance (MPR Hall) This will be a big improvement.
• The Quonset hut is torn down! There will be a small hole there for this school year. We are planning now for a new garage and additional parking. This will be for next year's budget.
• We are painting a few classrooms on the second floor now and hope to get as many done as we can. We apologize for those rooms we didn't get to. We will get to them next summer.
• We removed another folding wall and put in a permanent wall in the primary hall as well as new ceiling tile in the 2 rooms.
• There is one more thing that people will notice in several locations (gyms, cafeteria, and on the outside of the building), there are BLUE STROBE LIGHTS. These are meant to notify people in areas where it is loud, that there is an emergency. This was part of the safety grant money we received last year.
• Starting the week of the 12th the front sidewalk will be removed and replaced for safety. If you come in to CCS during that time, you may need to seek an alternate route.

Hinesburg:

Thanks to Tim and his crew, the building is again looking incredible! There are shiny floors, new paint, clean windows, and many other improvements big and small. They deserve a huge thank you for their outstanding job getting our school ready to welcome back the kids. When you do come in, be sure to have a look at our re-sanded gym floor, our new scoreboard, and thanks to our makerspace group, a much improved makerspace next to the library.

In addition, we installed an additional set of doors in our front entryway that will require visitors to be buzzed into an entry holding area, and then buzzed in a second time by our administrative assistants.Our side entrance will now remain locked, including during drop-off and pick-up. This means that all students and parents/guardians will need to enter the building through the front entrance. Drivers will still drop off students in the side parking lot, but then students will walk around to the front of the building and enter through the main doors. At the end of the day, students will still dismiss from various doors, but entry by non staff members to our building will always funnel through the more secure front door. A final change is that the front entrance will be unlocked from 7:30-8:15 am, and then again at 2:30pm. On early dismissal days, we will unlock the front door at 1:30.

Shelburne: 

Our rain garden in probably the biggest summer improvement that we can show off thus far.  All of our sidewalk curbs are currently being re-done.

Here is the story about the rain garden from WCAX.

Here is the Lewis Creek Newsletter detailing their work in Shelburne.

Williston: 

In Williston, cracked concrete paths were replaced for improved safety and appearance. Acoustic panels were installed in WCS Design and Tech Space.

Summer cleaning: Thanks to Lyall and the crew, corridors are scrubbed from carpet to ceiling so they gleam for the start of school year.

CVU: 

We've replaced half of the seating in the gym with new bleacher seats, replaced doors to the building to increase security, reorganized the Library, replaced furniture in the Business labs, and finished a conference room in the Learning Center.