Chappaqua School Officials Respond to 'Unsatisfactory' Building Ratings

In a joint letter, Chappaqua's Assistant Superintendent for Business John Chow and Joe Gramando, director of facilities, responded to a Sunday Journal News piece on school building ratings throughout the Hudson Valley region. The newspaper posted data showing the building ratings for each school district in the area. Below is the letter.

New York State requires school districts to hire independent inspectors to conduct a Building Condition Survey (BCS) every five years, and to formulate a 5-year plan to correct any deficiencies. The Journal News conducted an analysis of the 2010-2011 inspection reports written for 456 school buildings in the Lower Hudson Valley and on Sunday, November 13th, The Journal News published its findings in an article titled, “Too big to fix - A Journal News special report on the condition of school buildings in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam.”

Overall, our buildings are in excellent condition but there are a few improvements we need to make. In Chappaqua there are 11 buildings used for instructional purposes and the district contracted KG&D Architects in Mount Kisco to conduct a BCS, which was completed in August 2010. Each facility received a 14-page report addressing 80 New York State designated inspection criteria in 13 categories and it was found that five buildings at four schools received an overall building rating of “unsatisfactory.” Horace Greeley High School received 6 unsatisfactory ratings, Greeley Gym A received 1, Westorchard received 1, Grafflin received 1, and the Bell Temporary Building received 7 but is no longer used by students and staff.

While this sounds quite surprising at first, it is important to note that receiving only one unsatisfactory rating out of 80 inspection criteria resulted in an overall building rating of “unsatisfactory.” Also, according to the Journal News report, “An unsatisfactory rating does not necessarily mean that a building is unsafe, but that at least one major system, such as heating, has exceeded its life span and needs to be replaced or have costly, ongoing maintenance.”

In the five buildings, it was determined that certain equipment had reached the end of its expected useful life (even though the equipment is still operating in a safe manner) but an overall building rating of “unsatisfactory” was given.

Click here to see the 2010-11 Building Condition Survey ratings.

Westorchard: Overall building rating of “unsatisfactory” because the public address system has passed its expected useful life.

Grafflin: Overall building rating of “unsatisfactory” because water distribution piping has passed its expected useful life.

Bell (temporary building): Overall building rating of “unsatisfactory” because the portable building has passed its expected useful life and is not ADA access compliant.

Horace Greeley: Main Campus & Gym A: Overall building rating of “unsatisfactory” because of the HVAC systems, windows and two roof sections have passed their expected useful life.

Please know that the health and safety of our students is of utmost importance and we will continue to maintain our facilities to reflect community expectations.

Sincerely,

John Chow, Assistant Superintendent for Business
Joe Gramando, Director of Facilities, Operations and Maintenance