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Butler School Board gets tour of buildings in need of repair

Butler School District's acting director of business services Nick Morelli, center, points to peeling paint on the floor, walls and ceiling in the gymnasium of Butler Senior High School.

Butler School District administrators are preparing to address leaking roofs, asbestos, peeling paint and other items on a long list of capital needs.

To pay for these urgently needed repairs, the school board last year voted to borrow $9.6 million through a bond issue.

On Monday night, in lieu of a regular school board meeting, board members and district administrators and employees took a tour of several buildings to see the problems that need correcting and get information that will help them decide how to budget the almost-$10 million from the bond issue.

At Butler Senior High School, the district is planning to deal with asbestos floor tiles in the auditorium, peeling paint on the floor of the gymnasium and leaking concrete below the swimming pool, Superintendent Brian White said.

A snack booth in the cafeteria has been identified as a tripping hazard and also obstructs the view of monitors during lunch periods — and the district plans to remove it this summer, he said.

The board also visited the Butler Middle School. Built in 1917, it is the district's oldest building.

The building has a leaking roof, which has caused damage to structural steel and caused leaking ceilings. But to repair the roof, there would need to be asbestos abatement done, which would make it an especially costly job, White said.

Another issue is that the school slowly sinks into the ground and the district has had to pay to lift it up two times in recent years.

The district earlier this year hired IKM and asked it to assess some of its building needs, including the middle school.

“The question we will need to ask is 'is the capital investment worth the building we own?'” White said about the aging middle school.

A full story appears in Tuesday's Butler Eagle.

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