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The Pleasanton school board will be voting on an emergency work resolution on Thursday so the district can make necessary water and damage repairs after a fire broke out at the small gym at Amador Valley High School earlier this month.
If approved, the resolution will allow the district to use $395,000 from its Routine Restricted Maintenance — which will later be recovered through the property liability insurance for the building — to stabilize the damaged areas in the gym and reopen the non-damaged areas.
“Additional assessment and planning work will be needed to determine repairs and or next steps to the small gym,” according to Thursday’s staff report.
On March 17, the Livermore Pleasanton Fire Department responded to a commercial fire alarm at the small gym just before 8 p.m. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
According to the staff report, the Pleasanton Unified School District contacted a restoration management company to investigate and assess the damage caused by the fire before contacting the district’s insurance carrier. The report states that the company found water and fire suppressant in the gym, girls locker room and in an office located inside the gym, which can be dangerous if not immediately addressed.
“Emergency work to remediate the water and fire damage to the gym roof, walls, flooring, doors and electrical, and to repair the damaged areas at the project site is necessary at Amador Valley High School in order to avoid danger to health and damage to property,” according to the staff report.
The report states that the condition of the gym could put students, staff and contractors in danger of “bodily injury and/or death” during the active school year, which is why the district says the work needs to be done immediately.
The dangerous damage constituted an emergency pursuant to public contract code, which is why staff are looking to the board to approve Thursday’s resolution. The resolution makes it so the district does not have to go through the typical bidding process to seek contractors that will carry out the repair work.
Instead the district, through the superintendent, will be able to enter into a contract with a contractor in order to get the work done in a timely manner.
There will also be a separate resolution on Thursday’s agenda that, if approved, would also allow the district to enter into a contract to immediately carry out emergency work that needs to be done at Foothill High School to remove sewage and water in the floors of the music room and adjacent offices.
The district identified a sewer leak in the room and offices last year on Sept. 27 and the restoration management company similarly determined that the condition of the damage could put students, staff and contractors at risk of injury and death.
The company identified water damage and sewer spillage in the closet, office and the music room, which could also create further property damage risks.
Just like the emergency work resolution at Amador, the Foothill resolution would allow the district to immediately work toward repairing the damage by entering into a contract without having to go through the bidding process.
Roughly $83,000 would also be taken out of the Routine Restricted Maintenance to fund the services — the money would also be recovered through the district’s property liability insurance carrier.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (March 28). Read the full agenda here.
In other business:
* District staff will be recommending that the Board of Trustees approve four agreements with the city regarding the Amador tennis courts, Amaral Park, the upper Bernal Fields and the fence between Fairlands Park and Fairlands Elementary.
The board will also be considering terminating two joint agreements with the city — the Tennis Courts Community Recreation agreement and the Synthetic Field Use agreement.
According to the staff report, PUSD and the city have had a longstanding partnership of providing and maintaining facilities, grounds and resources for students and community members.
There are currently six agreements related to joint-use facilities and eight related to shared use of fields and tennis courts between PUSD and the city.
However, staff from both the city and the district recently reviewed these agreements and identified what is currently working and what isn’t so that they could determine what agreements needed to be updated and which ones should be terminated.
Besides the Amaral Park agreement, which would be a completely new agreement, the other three that staff is recommending to approve include updates such as identifying maintenance responsibilities and scheduling, according to the staff report.
If the board terminates the Tennis Courts Community Recreation agreement, as recommended by staff from both the district and the city, it would return the “maintenance and scheduling of these courts to PUSD.”
The courts, however, will still be available for community use after school hours and on the weekends.
As for the Synthetic Field Use Agreement — which covered the synthetic fields at Amador, Foothill, and Bernal Community Park — terminating the agreement would “revert to the standard rental protocols for each agency, requesting and paying for use through the existing scheduling systems.”
The City Council approved the four update agreements and the two terminations during its March 19 meeting.
* During closed session, the board and district staff will be meeting with Dominic Dutra, the founder of 3D Strategies consulting company, to discuss the possible purchase of property at 5805 Owens Drive.
* The board will be looking to approve three contracts to upgrade the fire alarm systems at Amador, Foothill and Hart Middle School, by using funds from the $270 million Measure I1 bond. These projects will be the last of the fire alarm upgrades the district will make to the entire district.
* Another Measure I1 project that the board will look to approve on Thursday is the HVAC upgrades to the Pleasanton Middle School gym. Staff will be seeking approval to enter into a $1,414,700 contract with Strawn Construction to carry out the upgrades, which includes replacing portions of the roof and installing a system with air conditioning.
* The Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, which is an independent entity that makes sure the district appropriately spends its bond measure dollars, will be presenting an annual report on how the district spent Measure I1 and Measure I funds in 2023.
* The board will be receiving an update on the PUSD Adult Education Program and will separately be looking to approve a resolution recognizing the week of April 7 as Adult Education Week.