Statewide Comprehensive Study of School Infrastructure needed

Recognizing that readership is relatively modest, I feel confident that writing on this subject as the shadow of hurricane Irene slowly moves up the eastern coast will not be seen as irresponsible, but more a timely discussion between a select group of related professionals.

Last week I sat in my office in mild disbelief as what I thought to be a momentary loss of equilibrium was confirmed by the shout of a colleague, who had formerly lived in California, that we were in fact experiencing an earthquake. Since college many of us have heard of the potential for a devestating earthquake to strike the older, less-reinforced buildings of the east coast cities. Today we are preparing for the effects of a hurricane over the weekend. It's hard to call it a "tropical storm" in New England, but that is likely the classification of winds anticipated when it will go by.

These natural events and potential states-of-emergency lead me back to this year's report card update. School infrastructure has not been evaluated in more than a decade and even then it was a survey of school superintendents concerning their knowledge of the existing structure. At that time more than 50% of the schools had a major deficiency.

Schools provide a lot more to our communities than simply a building to house our children when they are being educated. With the growth of extra curricular activities, and use for town meetings and polling locations, I would even suggest that schools buildings have taken over many of the community functions formerly reserved for town halls and churches.

Emergency services have reached out to the towns to identify regional emergency shelters including space, capacity, bathrooms, showers, and kitchen facilities and have begun the process of verifying the locations. This effort is still more of an administrative role without the service of engineers to verify building codes, structural condition, air quality, and energy efficiency deficiencies.

There needs to be a comprehensive study of our existing community facility infrastructure including schools, fire stations, police stations and hospitals. This would include the need assessment for replacement, rehabilitation, modernization and upgrades. The status of these facilities needs to be known. This would help assist emergency services staff during times of crisis and help municipal and state leaders evaluate the needs of the state and best allocate the funding to meet our future needs.