Local school buildings wrestle with deteriorating conditions
This article appeared in The Vermont Standard on May 12, 2022.
By Tom Ayres
Senior Staff Writer
A report released last month by the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) spotlighted the deteriorating conditions of aging school buildings throughout the state. Of particular concern to seven Upper Valley communities, the “Vermont School Facilities Inventory and Assessment” called special attention to an Upper Valley supervisory union for the declining status of its school infrastructure.
The Windsor Central Supervisory Union (WCSU), which serves students in grades pre-K through 12 from the towns of Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock, has the second-worst school building conditions in Vermont, according to the AOE report, which was compiled by Bureau Veritas, a consulting firm that specializes in building inspection and certification. Only the Orange Southwest School District fared worse than WCSU in the statewide facilities assessment.
The results reflected in the report, which was presented to the Vermont House and Senate Committees on Education by AOE Secretary Daniel French on April 13, are based on surveys completed by local school officials (rather than in-person inspections of school facilties statewide). WCSU officials reacted to the report last Friday and referenced the school union’s five-year capital improvements plan, adopted by the WCSU School Board last December, as the framework for the district’s ongoing response to declining school infrastructure across the seven-town district.
”The AOE report is significant. There’s a lot there that must be communicated because it’s really important for our communities,” WCSU Superintendent Sherry Sousa offered. “Our communities do not understand the depths of the challenges of our school buildings. If you drive by our schools, we’re doing a really good ob with the exteriors, so people might ask why there should be such concern. But in terms of everything from the roofs on buildings, the windows and doors, full systems, and more — we have major issues. The middle school and high school are of particular concern — we have issues with the heating and water systems, electricity, sewage, and more. Within the next six to nine months, we’ll begin to communicate to our communities where we are with all our facilities.”
Following the discussion with Sousa, WCSU Director of Finance and Operations James Fenn and District Buildings and Grounds Manager Joe Rigoli spoke at length about the AOE report, the school union’s strategic capital plan, and plans to build a new school complex on the current site of Woodstock Union High School and Middle School (WUHS/MS) within the next five to seven years.