By: Kathy McDermott Goodman
MiltonNews DAILY Correspondent
Printed in the Weekly Record Herald on Friday, May 6, 2011
The new Milton-Union School, currently under construction on Milton-Potsdam Road in West Milton, “is in the top ten percent of all schools I have seen,” says Steve Berenaski of the Ohio School Facilities Commission. He has seen over 400 schools in the last two years. According to Milton-Union Superintendent Virginia Rammel, “He wants to start sending people out to see our school.”
Currently the new school building has a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) rating. There are four ratings: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. According to Mike Huff of Ruetschle Architects, We are at the top end of the gold rating and are taking the building to the next level.”
There will be computer monitors installed that will show how much energy is being used by each area and hopefully it will become a competition between each school to see who can conserve the most energy. “Hopefully this will become the standard to which other school districts build their schools,” says Huff.
Darrell Shepherd of Resource International says Milton-Union is “getting a good school.” A tour of the new buildings was given on Friday, April 29 to several district members and media. They were given a first-hand look at the progress, green initiatives, and general layout and design of the future school. Weekly Record Herald Editor Joyell Nevins stated, “I had no idea how many little details go into creating a new school building like this.”
The are nine prime contractors currently working on the school. “The second floor of the building is about two weeks behind the first,” according to Shepherd, “and we are working from west to east.”
The second floor is a pre-cast concrete plank as opposed to a bar joist floor. The pre-cast design creates a much harder and sturdier floor. This helps control movement in the ceilings of the first floor; projectors hooked to the ceilings don’t shake like they would with a bar joist floor above.
Every step of the way, they are conducting tests of the many different systems and materials used during each stage. If something does not meet the necessary standard, it is immediately corrected.
Recycling is also a big part of the construction process. All excess wood, concrete, paper, plastic and metal on site is put into one of the various bins on each level. It is then sent to a center that separates the materials for recycling. Nothing on-site goes to waste.
A storm water retention system is currently in place that will be used to recycle rain water throughout the new school. The rain water harvesting tank will collect water to be used to flush all of the toilets in all of the buildings. “This will create approximately $12,000 per year in savings,” says Huff.
The entrance ways will have a recessed floor with a floor grid that includes bristle brush inserts designed to removes debris from students’ and adults’ shoes as they enter the building. This will make keeping the new school clean easier for the maintenance staff. All they will have to do is easily hose off the area to get rid of the debris, as opposed to it being scattered throughout the building. This floor grid is designed to last approximately 15 years and then may need to be replaced.
The 5,500 square-foot Media Center will have a very open design. It will also have four different areas for the four different school levels. “This design is a metaphor for the whole school,” says Huff. The school is designed so that students from the different levels do not interfere with each other.
The kitchen will be approximately 5,000 square-feet, which is fairly typical for a school of this size, and will be a food-court style kitchen. This style of kitchen promotes better eating habits for students since they can choose from available items as opposed to just having something put onto their tray. The elementary grades will still use the cafeteria-type system since they require more assistance with food selection.
The Dining/Muti-Purpose Area is designed for 750 kids and will have an operable partition on the stage which can open up the area to be used with the High/Middle School Gym. There is an acoustical metal deck in the ceilings of the dining area as well as the gyms. There are thousands of holes in the metal flutes under the roof which will help absorb sound.
Both gym areas have high-standard wood floors. The Elementary Gym has a high school level performance floor cushion under the wood. The High School Gym has a collegiate level/NBA level cushion.
The gym area roofs are a barrel roof design, which is roofing technology that has been utilized for the last 20-25 years according to Huff and Shepherd. This design drains water toward the roof drains much better and carries a 35-year warranty. They are also modified bitument roofs. They are 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick and included 2 layers and a cap sheet. “You will easily get 40 years out of this roof,” Huff said.
The outer walls are a cavity wall construction and contain a polyurethane foam covering. The foam creates a vapor barrier, for energy efficiency, and also takes care of any gaps.
The south-facing windows have a light shelf 2/3 of the way up. This will allow for more use of natural light and will reduce the need to turn on the lights in the rooms.
Each classroom will contain smart boards and white boards. The special education classrooms will have a smart board on each side and a partition that can be used to separate the room in half to allow for more specialized attention for the students.
“It really is a quality building, especially due to the green initiatives and use of space,” says Rammel.
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