The October 26, 2020 Cleveland County School Board Meeting, held in the middle of the 2020 Elections Early voting, was long on hot-air talk, poor mouthing the NC General Assembly for not giving them more money to waste and short on good decision making. And full of examples of an accumulation of bad management and the lack of any strategic planning to resolve any of the multitude of past, present and future problems and issues at CCS. We suggest that everybody watch the meeting video to see for yourself.
In the meantime, we will hit the high spots of the meeting. But, not necessarily in the order of the meeting.
Probably the best example of the worst possible board discussions and bad decision the School Board made was regarding new air conditioning at the Burns and Crest High School gymnasiums. Let’s forget for a moment about the promises for new auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools that the incumbent board members make around every election. Now floors at the Crest High School gym and new air conditioning for seem to be the best offers to buy votes from county residents.
Some facts. All high schools in Cleveland County are over 50 years old. Shelby and Kings Mountain High Schools have swimming pools and auditoriums while Burns and Crest High Schools do NOT have swimming pools and air conditioning. Shelby and Kings Mountain schools get nice sports facilities, ball fields and high priority fixes when things go wrong. Burns and Crest High Schools get the leftovers, if they get anything at all. Like real and effective fixes for the major mold infestations at Burns and Crest High Schools. Even the little things, like changing HVAC filters at Burns and Crest High Schools are done after 14 months instead of every month like they should be.
So, Air conditioning the gyms at Burns and Crest High Schools are nice, but are way over due.
At last nights school board meeting the Air conditions bids for the Burns and Crest High School gyms were presented to the school board for approval. $562,000 total was the low bid. Not a small sum.
But, the only thing actually provided to the board was the bid costs. Not a peep about just exactly what was going to be provided for such an amount. Or even what CCS had actually specified in their requests for proposals from HVAC contractors. And nobody withing CCS or outside CCS that knew anything about HVAC was present to answer any questions from the board. Only Superintendent Stephen Fisher and Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Wampler. Neither of which had any education, training, experience of even knowledge of how air conditioning operates and the necessary maintenance needed to maintain the equipment for proper operation and performance. It was like the old saying, “when the blind leads the blind, they all fall in the ditch.” And they all fell in the ditch.
First, The addition of new air conditioning equipment at the Burns and Crest High School gymnasiums:
Board Member Danny Blanton reminded the Board that this new air-conditioning installation was not a small sum and that the health of students at Burns and Crest High Schools, endangered by the serious mold infestations needed to be fixed immediately. AND, that funds were short. Therefor “needs” should have priority over “wants.” That the health of students should have a higher priority over the desire to be in a cool environment. When Blanton brought up the fact that the sale of the old North Shelby School to Mt. Calvary Church for $550,000 had not been paid for yet and with that owed money, when collected would help resolve the cost issues involved with both the mold and hot gymnasium issues at Burns and Crest High Schools.
When Blanton mentioned the money owed on the sale of the old North Shelby School not being collected, all hell broke loose. Oh, we need those hot gyms to be cooled. That is Not a “want,” that is a need, other board members were saying. Especially those incumbents running for re-election (Shearra Miller, Richard Hooker and Roger Harris) and their buddies (Bully Glover, Jo Boggs and Coleman Hunt). Board Chairman Shearra Miller was also active in shutting down Danny Blanton. She said that the action before the board was the Air Conditioning of Burns and Crest High School auditoriums, Not the old North Shelby school. In the end, the vote was 8-1 in favor of authorizing the installation of the AC at the Burns and Crest High School Gymnasiums.
But, as I was sitting there listening to the discussion, I was quickly understanding that the School Board totally lacked management skills. The had no system of prioritizing projects. They had no strategic plan to properly maintain the equipment they have or planning for new construction of schools as they reach the end of their useful life. Or in the financing of that construction. As my mind was comprehending all of this, I realized the School Board had no strategic planning for anything. They were just making lists of what needed to be fixed and Shelby and Kings Mountain got first priority and Burns and Crest got what was left over. If anything. Since all the High Schools are over 50 years old and the useful life can be stretched to60 or 70 years, strategic planning for construction and planning should have started 10 years ago. I thought, What a mess?? This should be the SECOND thing a new school Board majority should do. Initiate a comprehensive strategic plan for the OVERALL operation of CCS. Of course the FIRST thing and new School Board should do is reorganize the CCS organizational chart to reflect the necessary functions of operating and maintaining the overall structure of CCS Operations (including strategic planning) and fill those positions with qualified personnel who are trained and experienced with the necessary skills needed to perform that particular function.
But, the vote to install the air conditioning at the Burns and Crest High School Gymnasiums contains a risk of serious injury and death on a large scale that was not considered or discussed at the school board meeting and likely not considered in the bid specifications, bidding process as well as the air conditioning equipment installation and subsequent gym usage.
It goes like this.
During the original construction of Burns and Crest High Schools over 50 years ago, the gymnasium roof support structure inadvertantly contained a design flaw that greatly diminished the roof’s strength. However, the design flaws were not discovered and the gymnasiums were built and the gymnasiums put into action.
Everything appeared to be fine for a while. The gymnasiums were filled to capacity for Friday night basketball games and everybody was happy. However, one Friday night in the winter of 1969, the Burns gym was packed to capacity for a basketball game and everything was fine and dandy. That next Saturday night the weather dropped to around freezing and there was a misty rain. A thin sheet of ice built up on the roof. The same weather front hit the Crest High School gym that very same night, but the temperature was slighty above freezing, so the liquid water drained off the roof without adding extra weight to the Crest gym roof.
That next Sunday morning, somebody discovered that the Burns High School gymnasium roof had disappeared. A closer inspection revealed the gym walls had bowed out just a little and the entire roof, structural steel and all, had collapsed flat onto the gym floor. Front to back and side to side. If anybody had been inside that gymnasium at the exact time of the roof collapse, they would have been killed instantly. Itf the storm had happened 24 hours before, the capacity crowd would have all been killed instantly. Cleveland County Schools immediately closed down the gymnasium at Crest High School and shored up the roof with additional support structures until the design flaw was identified and corrected. The roof for the Burns High School gymnasium was eventually rebuilt with the design flaw fixed.
Now, fast forward to 2020, and the School Board approving the addition of air conditioning equipment that will be installed and supported by the gymnasium roof. Air conditioning equipment is heavy and that this extra weight must be accounted for in strength calculations to determine whether or not the strength of the roof support structure is sufficient to hold this additional weight with sufficient strength left over to safely suspend this extra weight as well as the original weight from the roof construction-with a sufficient safety margin. There was no discussion of this extra weight on the roof structure being recalculated to determine if the roof would be safe after this air conditioning equipment installation. There was no indication that an architect had been consulted to determine that the Burns and Crest High School gymnasium roofs would be safe after the new air conditioning equipment installation. There was no indication that either CCS or the air conditioning equipment contractors had even thought of making such a calculation. Without notification that a certified calculation performed by a Registered and Licensed Structural Engineer of the roof’s ultimate strength will indeed withstand the additional weight plus an adequate safety margin, you have to assume that the roof’s structure is NOT strong enough to safely support the additional weight. Therefore you must stop all work on the air conditioning installation, operation as well as allowing the gymnasium to be occupied, until a Registered and Licensed structural engineer does provide notification that the addition of the air conditioning equipment is safe. From all information provided to the School Board, there is NO indication that the propose installation of the air condition equipment at Burns and Crest High School gymnasiums will result in a gymnasium that is safe for human occupancy.