March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

State calls Belfast school fire trap> Evaluators detect `serious life safety issues’ in 85-year-old building

BELFAST — A state education official who conducted an evaluation of the Peirce School last week has described the 85-year-old building as a “fire trap.”

Department of Education evaluator Scott Brown said his team detected “serious life safety issues” in the school. Brown said the evaluation was undertaken at the request of SAD 34, which is looking for state assistance to renovate the city’s four elementary schools.

“We were just appalled at some of the things we saw, but we’re appalled with a lot of the places we go to. These are old buildings and you have to question whether or not they’re worthy of [renovation] at some point,” Brown said Monday.

Superintendent of Schools Carol Robbins said the state Education Department inspected the school Wednesday. She said that after listening to some of the evaluator’s remarks, she decided to ask Belfast Fire Chief James Richards to conduct an inspection of the Peirce and Gov. Anderson schools, both in Belfast.

She said Richards’ report would be ready in time for next week’s school board meeting on district facilities.

“He did mention that he was concerned about access and egress issues,” Robbins said of Brown.

The district had hoped to replace both the Peirce and Anderson schools with a new building, but dropped its plans after community members protested that the loss of their neighborhood schools would harm the district’s children.

Robbins is concerned that keeping the schools open could place the children in harm’s way.

In a letter mailed to board members last week, Robbins said Brown’s team expressed doubt that the Peirce School could ever be upgraded to meet the needs of elementary pupils. She said the evaluators questioned whether the site was large enough to add a multipurpose room. She said they voiced strong concerns that the policy of using the Peirce basement as a physical education area was inappropriate.

“I was very concerned when they talked about the safety issue and what would happen if there were ever a fire in that building,” Robbins informed board members in her letter. “How would the children get out of the basement? They questioned whether or not we could ever get them out.”

Brown said retired school Superintendents Paul Johnson and Dale Doughty accompanied him on the school evaluation. He said he was aware of the community’s attachment to the Peirce School, but added that in his view the building was a “fire trap.” He said the evaluation committee would complete its ranking of the 82 schools they visited by the middle of January.

“This is not an official response, but these are old buildings, the kids are below grade, there are access and egress issues, ventilation issues, storage issues, there are just a lot of issues,” Brown said. “All we did is go there to look at the facilities, just like we’re doing with 82 others. We’re not looking for solutions at this point, but there are some interesting things in those buildings.”

Robbins indicated that while the evaluation team’s observations were unsettling, they confirmed the district’s position that state assistance is needed to upgrade the schools. She acknowledged, however, that if the state decided taking on the repairs would be a bad investment, local taxpayers would still have the option of paying for the entire project.

Preliminary estimates are that it would cost $600,000 to undertake basic improvements at Peirce and $800,00 for Anderson. Those estimates are 3 years old and do not include the cost of multipurpose rooms for each building. The board voted last month to have the estimates brought up to date.

“Our problem is how to bring them up to standard and meet the needs of the program,” Robbins said. “I think they did an honest assessment. [Brown] did indicate that we have a very high need and that’s what we believe, also.”


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