Security Upgrade Among $1.2 Million in School Renovations

Within a month, Braintree Public Schools will have added or replaced 21 security cameras as part of an ongoing effort to upgrade building security following last year's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The cameras, along with internally-locking classroom doors coming by early next year, are among the more than $1.2 million in renovations completed at Braintree schools this summer or that will be done by next fall.

Each of the past several years, the town has allocated approximately $700,000 for capital projects in the schools. In addition, the school department spent another $200,000 from rental income and received a special town appropriation of $315,000 for a paving project at East Middle School.

"Well over $1 million we are putting back into our schools and our infrastructure," School Committee Chair Shannon Hume said. "We are very fortunate."

Business Manager Peter Kress ran down a list of completed or soon-to-be-completed projects during Monday night's committee meeting.

Some renovations – like painting, carpet cleaning, new floors, lighting and ceilings – were completed at various schools over the summer. Others, such as renovating the South Middle School auditorium, will wait until next summer.

A few of the major examples:

• $279,000 is being spent on a security system upgrade system-wide. Its expected completion date is March 1, 2014. This includes 21 new or replaced cameras inside and outside Braintree High School and outside the elementary and middle schools.

• New classroom door locks will be installed by January or February, Kress     said. The locks, which will be handicap accessible and lock from the inside   as well as the outside, have been delayed because of high demand             following the Newtown shooting.

• $315,000 was spent to re-pave the entire East Middle School parking lot. That project is finished. Another $9,000 was spent at East for the purchase of 120 desks and 120 chairs. $2,900 was spent on refinishing the gym floor.

• $145,000 will be spent by approximately Nov. 1, 2013, on new BHS gymnasium bleachers and a new curtain, along with renovations to the gym and windows and painting.

• $5,500 was spent this summer at the Highlands to repair modular siding and the modular entrances, $3,000 to install air conditioning units on the lower level, and $2,000 to convert the media center into a classroom.

• $10,750 was spent on renovating room 210 at South. A donor will present a check to the school department at an upcoming committee meeting to cover those costs. $2,000 was also spent refinishing the gym floor and $1,000 on repainting parking and playground areas.

• The Flaherty gym floor was also refinished, for $1,100, pot holes in the driveway and playground were repaired for $1,500 and grade 4 furniture was purchased for $2,000.

• $8,000 was spent at Hollis to address water filtration in room 120, $1,300 on the gym floor, $1,000 on parking and playground painting, $4,500 on floor projects in rooms 303 and 106, and $11,000 renovating a former locker room area on the lower level to classroom and computer lab space.

• $10,000 was spent at Liberty installing a new floor and ceiling in the kitchen. $1,000 was spent on windows in the kindergarten bathroom, $1,000 on playground and parking lot painting and $1,000 on repairing a manhole in front of the school.

• The gym floor was refinished at Morrison for $1,300, cracks in the playground were sealed for $2,000, two new bubblers were installed for $1,200 and 10 new white boards were put in at a cost of $3,000. Another $3,000 will be spent this fall on replacing the bathroom stalls in the boys and girls bathrooms.

• $6,000 was spent at Ross renovating the urinals and the boys' bathroom. $5,000 was spent on installing more learning space in the media center, $1,000 on the gym floor and $1,000 on the parking lot and playground lines.

• To open the two full-day classrooms at Monatiquot, $12,000 was spent, along with several thousand more dollars on air conditioning, carpet, electronic fob access, a rear door camera, whiteboards, sinks and bubblers and more.

• The administration building will undergo $15,000 in roof leak repairs by Oct. 1, 2013 and 26 short throw projectors will be installed this fall throughout the system at a cost of $52,000.

• Items scheduled for completion by September 2014 include $50,000 each in ceiling renovations at Flaherty, Liberty and Ross, and $40,000 in fire suppression upgrades at both Flaherty and Hollis (plus $45,000 for that work at Highlands). A $150,000 HVAC digital control project at BHS is scheduled for completion in September 2015.