Danville District 118 could soon be going without Garfield Elementary School.
School board members discussed emergency and long-term repairs to the building during a study session Wednesday night, with many board members saying they do not favor spending money to rehabilitate the 118-year-old building, where Dick Van Dyke and Bobby Short both went to grade school.
Superintendent Dr. Alicia Geddis says $3.5 million needs to be spent immediately to fix health and life safety issues. Buildings and Grounds Director Skip Truex says that an additional $9 million would need to be spent long-term to keep the building up to code, including fixing the failing gym roof and replacing the air conditioning system. He says air-quality needs will need to be front and center moving forward.
“The standards are changing, and they’re changing quickly, because of COVID, really,” he explains. “There are things that they’ve been wanting to do–the government, state, whatever–for a long period of time, but they’re really pushing this stuff through on a fast track.”
Board member Lon Henderson noted that Garfield is landlocked, meaning the district cannot expand it, and there is little playground or parking space already. Board member Johnnie Carey points out that even with a renovation, Garfield would still not be up-to-date.
“It will not give us a state-of-the-art building, and that’s what I want to see for all of our students,” she says. “To be able to be in a building that is state-of-the-art that they can utilize.”
Assistant Superintendent John Hart says Garfield currently has 210 students, with a maximum capacity of 325. Dr. Geddis says that the district could draw a new elementary boundary map, or students could be shifted to Southwest Elementary School in Tilton.
