Mimosa Park Elementary and the Norco Elementary schools will receive much-needed repairs this summer while students are on vacation.
At Norco, drainage has been a problem for quite some time.
“Drainage problems actually started when the school was built in 1962,” said John Rome, administrator of physical plant services for the school district. “At that time, I don’t think drainage was a primary consideration like it is now. From the beginning, the site was not set up for drainage.”
The school district is accepting bids now and hope to have construction under way by April or May.
Included in the project will be drainage and subsurface work, such as piping, catch basins and trench draining. Rome said that he also plans replace the sidewalks in low areas and the canopy in the main corridor.
“A lot of the drainage work can be accomplished during the school year, so that’s probably what they’ll start with,” Rome said. “All of the work that will be a major disturbance to the school day, such as canopy and sidewalk replacements, will be during the summer months.”
Rome said that whatever company is contracted for the work will have to make sure that the work that is done during the school year does not make the school a dangerous environment.
“It’ll be in the bid specifications that the contractor has to secure off the area that they’re working in,” Rome said.
Rome said he hopes the project will be done in time for the start of the school in August.
Mimosa Park Elementary will also be receiving a face-lift this summer.
After a recent routine health inspection by the Health Department, Mimosa Park’s cafeteria was found to have problems that include a non-functioning dishwashing system, damaged kitchen flooring and insufficient seating.
Rome said that the problems have gradually gotten worse over the past few years.
“The flooring itself probably has gotten worse over the last couple of years – like everything, it started off as a few tiles here and there,” Rome said. He said that the schools were using Styrofoam due to the broken dishwashing system.
The project will include fixing all of the problems found during the inspection.
In addition to fixing the things found during the inspection, Rome said there is a potential to add 80 more seats, to increase the amount of dry storage space and to relocate the cooler to make it more convenient for cafeteria staff.
The project is now accepting bids and Rome hopes that construction will begin in May and last throughout the summer.
“Our hope is to set it up so it will be ready right for the beginning of school,” Rome said. “We’ll make a contingency plan with our child nutrition director if it’s not going to be ready for that first week or so.”
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