LPOSD working to improve district buildings

SANDPOINT — Since fall 2021, the Lake Pend Oreille School District’s long range facility planning committee has been working to create a list of priorities of district-wide building improvements. 

The committee was launched last October to develop a comprehensive plan for district buildings, which add up to 538,258 square feet of building space, that sit on over 150 acres of LPOSD property.

Since then, the group has toured Northside Elementary, Sandpoint High School, Sandpoint Middle School, Washington Elementary, Lake Pend Oreille High School and Clark Fork Junior/Senior High School. 

During each tour, participants are provided a building condition evaluation form that was crafted by architects, maintenance personnel and district administrative personnel. The assessment is a systematic rating of common building components and is based on coding and categories, the LRFPC overview document said. The five major assemblies are substructure, shell, interiors, services and furnishings. There are also sub-assemblies and components. 

The BCEF scoring consists of ratings that include excellent, good, fair, poor and unsatisfactory. The individual component scores are combined to produce a total building condition score based on a 100-point scale. The scoring is based on visual observation as well as historical data provided by maintenance personnel familiar with the operation of the buildings as well as the systems. These ratings help committee members decide which projects and campuses to prioritize. 

At its April and May meetings, the committee refined future recommendations and priorities that will be presented to the board based on observations made during past tours and further discussion about those observations. A presentation on these recommendations is being created by a subcommittee and was expected to be demonstrated at Tuesday’s meeting so that the committee can provide feedback. A final presentation will be presented to the board at the LPOSD board of trustees’ June meeting. 

Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer announced at the May board meeting that the June 11 meeting will be held at the Ponderay Events Center. She has attended recent city council meetings to invite councilors and the community to attend the June meeting to hear the committee's suggestions and be present for the annual budget hearing. 

"You may remember that facilities — improving school safety and addressing deficient building conditions — was identified as the number one community priority in last year's survey,” Superintendent Dr. Becky Meyer said at the November board meeting.

Inspired by those statistics, the district established the committee to review its buildings and their condition. 

“This committee is made up of community members from each region of the district, who meet to better understand the current state of our facilities and seek to prioritize solutions to some of the challenges of our aging school infrastructure," Meyer said.