[Nfbwv-talk] WVSDB Budget

[Smyth, Charlene R]

Karen Swauger shared this and I just wanted to pass it on.



State boosts capital budget for WVSDB.

ROMNEY



A $435,000 increase in the capital budget will allow the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind to continue campus improvements begun by U.S. Defense forces last summer.



WVSDB saw its capital allocation jump from $85,000 this year to $520,000 in the state budget that goes into effect July 1. The rest of the schools $14.6 million budget stayed relatively the same.



The IRT kicked off a tremendous amount of projects on campus, said Administrative Superintendent Mark Gandolfi. We're continuing those.



The IRT  Innovative Readiness Training  brought both National Guard and reserve units to campus over 2 months last summer to work on projects at WVSDB.  The defense forces supplied the manpower and their heavy equipment to give troops training. The school provided materials and limited manpower.



WVSDB hopes the work will allow it to reopen Keller Hall for the next school year, housing the youngest deaf and blind students.  Work on a fire suppression system began there in early March.  Administratively, the school has a proposal before the State Board of Education today to transfer the workplace for 20 childcare workers from other locations to Keller Hall.



Keller Hall is getting a major facelift, Gandolfi said, primarily to install a cafeteria on the bottom floor and create bathrooms that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Other improvements there include new entry doors, a 20-ton heating-and-air system for the bottom floor, a back patio and ADA-accessible ramps to new backyard pavilions.



Work is projected to be finished in June.



When it reopens, Keller Hall will house students ages 3 to 12. Older students will remain at Seaton Hall, which is getting its own overhaul that should wrap up next month.



We were taking care of the safety issue, Gandolfi said. The 5,000-square-foot bakery wing came down last summer, courtesy of the IRT forces.



By summer, it will have a new roof on the cafeteria, a new generator, an exterior commercial freezer, ADA-compliant emergency exits and fire suppression improvements.



Keller Halls reopening will allow the school to move residential operations out of the Elementary School for the Deaf, the iconic 82,000-square-foot building on the campuss east end.



It's not being torn down, Gandolfi is quick to point out. It's a very good building, but we've got better buildings on campus.  He said the school will develop a maintenance plan and redevelopment timeline for the building.



We've consolidated. We've become more efficient, Gandolfi said. He credited last summer's experience with the IRT as kick-starting the renovations.



Troops deployed here June 10 and stayed longer than the planned 8 weeks, at times with more people and equipment brought in.



They stayed longer than anticipated and took care of things not originally planned, Gandolfi said. As unknowns became known, they were addressed.



That included extra electrical and plumbing work. Approvals delayed some demolition until later than planned, leaving other projects unfinished, like expanded parking beside the Instructional Resource Center.



They told us up front, Let's do it right and do it once, Gandolfi said.







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