Washington Chapter CEFPI

Potential Roof Structure Problem in 1970-1988 Wood Construction

OSPI is notifying school districts in Washington regarding a potential roof structure problem in wood truss-framed buildings built between 1970-1988. Subject buildings have bidder-designed wood roof trusses by the company FrameJoist. FrameJoist trusses have been determined to be the cause of a roof failure at Capital High School in Olympia in heavy snow conditions in 2008.

The OSPI bulletin contains recommendations for school districts with buildings from this period which may have been built with FrameJoist wood trusses. The trusses are composed of 2x members connected to plywood gusset plates with adhesive only (no mechanical fasteners).

Download OSPILetterReFrameJoist

School districts with concerns about FrameJoist wood trusses may wish to contact a structural engineering firm for consultation. The following structural engineering firms are members of the Washington Chapter of CEFPI:
AHBL
Coughlin Porter Lundeen
DCI Engineers
DLR Group
Integrus
PCS Structural Solutions

Summary of Impacts to Education in State Budget

Washington Association of School Adminstrators' This Week in Olympia has an excellent review of proposed cuts to education funding in Governor Gregoire's current budget. See it here: Download TWIOSpecEdGovBudgetNov21_2011

An Open Call to Male (and any other Tuxedo –wearing) members of the Washington State Chapter

Dear Colleagues,

In response to the announced “Black & White” theme, please wear a tuxedo to our December 8 event.  It is truth universally acknowledged that most men look really good in a tuxedo.  (Enter “Tuxedo” into Google Images.  Even better, enter “Tuxedo” with terms such as “Movie Stars”, “1940s”, “Cary Grant”, “Fred Astaire” etc.) You will not only enhance your own appearance, but also will improve the built environment.

PAX, 
Ed Peters
(Owns three tuxedos and a tail coat ensemble)

Legislative Update: Items to Watch and Budget Schedule

by Denise Siffarm, Puget Sound School Coalition

The following information is based upon current understanding of ongoing discussions taking place in Olympia. Of course we all know that things can change rapidly, and dramatically, at the Legislature. These issues will, however, be of significant potential impact to K-12 education should they be enacted as a result of the Legislature's work in the upcoming special session. 

The Governor is convening a Special Session to address the anticipated $1.5 billion shortfall in the 2011-13 operating budget (the $1.5 billion figure reflects the November 17th updated budget forecast).  On October 27^th the Governor presented a list of budget reduction alternatives, including her “preliminary choices,” to cut $2 billion in the current biennium (cutting $2 billion will provide the State with some revenue surplus). 

The Governor’s preliminary choices would cut $365 million from K-12 funding and include:  reducing Local Effort Assistance by $150 million beginning in 2013; increasing class size by two students in grades 4-12 saving $137 million; changing the school bus depreciation schedule saving $49 million; reducing the National Board certification bonus saving $8.4 million; revising the State attendance policy saving $6.4 million; and other cuts.  The proposed cuts would likely not start until the 2012-13 school year.  
 
While the focus is on a $2 billion operating budget deficit, it appears likely that the capital budget will also be in a deficit position because lower general fund revenue results in less bond capacity. We anticipate a negative supplemental capital budget.  OFM is currently gathering information from agencies to further refine the timing of capital expenditures, looking for ways to reduce appropriations without actually impacting projects. 

The Governor is expected to release her proposed budget and bills necessary to implement the budget the week of November 21^st.  The Special Session convenes at noon on November 28^th and could run as long as 30 days, but will likely adjourn before Christmas.  The Regular Session begins on January 9, 2012. 

Submit Articles for the Digital Newsletter

by Philip Riedel, NAC Architecture

Everyone has the opportunity to submit items for the our Chapter's digital newsletter and we are actively soliciting your input. We only ask that submissions comply with a few parameters:

• The format of the digital newsletter is to have one or two “teaser” sentences in the newsletter email itself, with a link to the full article on our blog site.
• Our blog format lends itself best to relatively short articles. The length of articles on the blog should be between 200-800 words. It is acceptable to include links in the text.
• Submissions should not be reposts of articles published elsewhere.
• Articles must be relevant to our membership and strictly informative rather than promotional. We are not interested in articles that focus on a single firm, project or product. So, articles that focus on issues of general interest to the educational planning community are appreciated. Projects can certainly be used as examples, but should not be the sole focus of the article.
• Articles that pull together input from multiple planners or sources are preferred, but not required.
• Selections of items to be published are made by the Chapter President-Elect and President, from among submissions complying with the above criteria received by the deadline. Deadlines are one week prior to distribution of the newsletter.

The remainder of this year's deadlines are as follows:

• January Newsletter: Submission Deadline 1/23/12
• February Newsletter: Submission Deadline 2/20/12
• March Newsletter: Submission Deadline 3/12/12
• April Newsletter: Submission Deadline 4/2/12
• May Newsletter: Submission Deadline 4/30/12

Email submissions to me at priedel@nacarchitecture.com. Thanks for your input!

No Child Left Behind – Where will Washington stand?

by Stephen Murakami, Hutteball & Oremus Architecture

In August, President Obama announced he will sign an executive order that allows states to opt out of this program. Twenty-seven states have already indicated they will.

 US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, sat with MSNBC to discuss the President’s vision. The basis for the change is teaching to the test limits the breadth and depth of what curriculum teachers are allowed to teach and dumbs down the standards to the lowest common denominator.  There will be a waiver allowing states to opt out, and guidelines on tracking and standardized tests, but with incentives instead of punitive actions. See the interview online [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44693695/ns/today-education_nation/]

 

Holiday Social, December 8th - Save the Date!

The CEFPI Washington Chapter kindly requests your attendance December 8th from 6PM-9PM at the Sanctuary at Admiral. The theme for the evening is a black and white holiday social. Be sure to dress in black and white attire in preparation of an evening full of delectable food, drink, and conversation.

For directions and RSVP information, see the invitation postcard: Download CEFPI_Black and White Ball

RSVP for October 27th Chapter Dinner Meeting and School Tour

Our next School Tour (Lake Washington High School) and Chapter Dinner Meeting (Coast Hotel in Bellevue) will be on Thursday, October 27th. Please RSVP for the dinner meeting by 10/21 by emailing Linda Jackson at ljackson@hoarch.com, or by calling 425-828-8948.

The schedule, directions and dinner rates are on the electronic postcard: Download 10_27-Tour_DinnerPostcard

Tour Details

Join us for a tour of Lake Washington High School. This new facility replaces the original school on the site, which remained operational during construction. The new school is designed around four learning communities which support multiple grades and interdisciplinary curriculum. The building also houses Northstar Junior High School.

Program: Design Intent to Occupancy

Between 2005 and 2009, six new or replacement elementary schools were opened in the Lake Washington School District.  Paralleling the opening of these schools has been the evolution in code requirements and advancements in K-12 design approaches.  Join us in a discussion about the different approaches, big decisions made and lessons learned from the design, building performance, operational and maintenance perspectives.

Presenters:

Lake Washington School District - Forrest Miller, Director of Support Services

Hutteball & Oremus - Juanita Elementary School

Mahlum  - Benjamin Franklin & Rosa Parks Elementary Schools

DLR Group – Rose Hill Elementary School

Integrus - Rachel Carson Elementary School

Studio Meng Strazzara - Robert Frost Elementary School

School of the Future

by Guy Overman, NAC | Architecture

School of the Future presents a prime opportunity for us, as planners, design professionals and industry partners, to team up with the ultimate end-users to envision the classroom of the future. Where do today’s students see tomorrow’s educator and student interfacing with the built environment to support the type of education they want for future generations?

Through the process of learning about technical skills that go into planning, designing, constructing and furnishing a building, students stand to benefit from the creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communications skills inherent to this project. But they need our help.

First, we need to reach out to educators to get them involved with this initiative. If you have 6-8^th grade teachers in your communities that would be interested in this learning opportunity, please share the program with them and help them get involved.

Second, we’ll need professional mentors to be available to help the students. It is typically an interactive session with you and the students, sharing with them some of the design considerations you face when siting, massing, programming and selecting systems to be included in a learning environment.

More information is available online, noted below. If you have any questions, please contact me at goverman@nacarchitecture.com or 206-441-4522.

Link to where schools can sign up: http://www.cefpi.org/i4a/forms/form.cfm?id=39&pageid=3732&showTitle=1

Link to sign up to be a mentor: http://www.cefpi.org/i4a/forms/form.cfm?id=38&pageid=3734&showTitle=1

Teacher curriculum and rules: http://www.cefpi.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3550

Kentucky’s first NetZero Designed School: A Tour of Richardsville Elementary

by Shannon McLaughlin, Hargis Engineers

The 2-hour round trip to the two Warren County Public Schools campuses was a beautiful journey with great learnings in the end. The County is home to a Corvette factory, Fruit of the Loom plant and an international center for refugees, so the district responds to a dynamic demographic that brings 400 new students annually, speaking 40 different languages. Coupled with aging facilities and an engaged community group, the district embraced the challenge to concurrently replace three schools.

The 1936 Richardsville Elementary School was comprised of an instructional facility and a barn that served as the school’s gymnasium. Planning for the next chapter in this school’s history, the stakeholders and design team stayed true to their overriding mission in planning, designing and opening a carbon neutral school. In doing so, they found those objectives also aligned with Energy Star and USGBC LEED® gold protocols. Some of the interesting take-aways:

Defining the Big Decisions

                Envelop

                Mechanical Systems (geo-thermal)

                Kitchen

                …and a 4^th….

New District Standards

ICF Structure – time savings during construction, even during in climatic weather, resulted in this becoming the district standard for interior and exterior walls. Shaved a couple of months off of the 15-month typical schedule for this project.

Kitchen & Nutrition Plan – as the largest consumer of energy, the kitchen was evaluated. Working with the nutrition team, deep fried foods were removed from the school’s menu and every 3 weeks the school has a “green lunch” (brown bag with salads).

Metering & Post Occupancy Audits – as with all projects, the occupants’ use of the space and the devices they operate are the unknown factor that can have a major impact on the true outcome of a project. In this case, an unexpected cooler created a spike in energy consumption, as well as higher-than-expected usage in the classrooms. Further evaluation and investigation, the team determined the non-essential cooler was not something they would have at the cost of a 30% increase over the anticipated energy consumption for that space. In the classrooms, they discovered that the personalization of the space with toasters and refrigerators were also impacting energy consumption. The district did not restrict against personalizing their spaces, but did encourage them to cut back on the usage of such items. As more teachers embraced this philosophy, the more were on board with changing their approach to classroom energy use.

Engaging the end-user – students of Richardsville Elementary are more aware of their built environment than one might expect of a student under the age of 11. Part is due to the involvement of the staff and parents, but it was equally interesting to see how the school reinforces that message throughout with super graphics and hands-on learning tools integrated into the interior design.

An architectural tour is available online. My experience is shown here.