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The bond will relocate 6-8 grade students from the aging Madison Middle School to the adjacent and more robust Mid-High building. (9th and 10th graders now at Mid-High would shift to an expanded Bartlesville High School.)
Closing one of the four secondary schools will also eventually reduce the district's operating costs.
Why leave Madison?
Madison has design limitations which would make a renovation an unwise use of taxpayer dollars
Madison Middle School was built in the popular “California” style of the 1950s with a great deal of single-pane glass panels, freestanding brick walls, and fire-resistant exterior overhang panels. This design is ill-suited to Oklahoma’s climate; many glass panes have been painted over or replaced with wood panels due to light and climate control problems. Many of the building’s materials have not aged well, causing the site to have high maintenance costs.
The school also has an awkward combination cafeteria/auditorium with uneven floor levels, and its gymnasium floor is frequently damaged by groundwater infiltration. The building has deteriorated to where it needs a full-scale renovation or replacement. While a great deal of money could be put into renovations, such as refreshing the building panels, replacing all of the windows, and trying to solve the problems in the cafeteria, auditorium, and gymnasium, the end results would still be underwhelming.
So $300,000 in the bond issue is allocated to demolishing and clearing the Madison site.
(click images to enlarge them)
Many of Madison's windows, both inside and out, had to be sealed up due to light and climate control problems.
The exterior panels are deteriorating and made of materials which are very expensive to remove for replacement.
The combination cafeteria and auditorium is a poor design with uneven floor levels.
The gym floor is repeatedly damaged by groundwater.
Many of the building's interior finishes are flimsy and worn out.
The building has deteriorated enough to require full-scale renovation or replacement.
About a decade after Madison opened, Sooner High School was built directly to the east. Sooner High later became the Mid-High, and is a much more robust structure than Madison. It will make a far better middle school building than Madison after approx. $1.2 million in bond-funded renovations to:
Additional shared funding will be available for furniture and technology upgrades where required, including equipping all classrooms with electronic white boards. The district’s Long Range Facilities Planning Committee, after consulting with architects, determined the best course of action would be to ask taxpayers to fund enlarging the high school to serve grades 9-12, which both reduces school transitions and improves district efficiency, while renovating the Mid-High into a robust replacement for Madison Middle School.
How will the Mid-High be reconfigured?
Renovate Mid-High into a robust, suitable replacement for Madison, in the same part of town
provide a secure entrance
promote grade-level teaming while replacing a couple of outmoded science labs
create a commons area
add rooftop HVAC units to improve climate control in 30 older classrooms
replace 600 older lockers
update some interior finishes
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