Seismic Retrofitting: The BIG decisions are made early

By Roy Tolles

The most signficant decisions regarding the seismic retrofitting of our schools will be made at the beginning of the process. These decisions must be carefully reviewed.

As one example, should we retrofit Beach School as proposed by ATI? I think the measures proposed by ATI will have little or no impact on life-safety. Seismic strengthening measures recommended for single-story wood buildings are generally limited to bolting and bracing at the foundation level. Do you want to fill in windows at Beach when the measures have a negligible impact on life-safety?

We need to have an open public debate to decide these issues. How much impact will the measures proposed by ATI have on life-safety? And how much do they cost? How much do we want to spend on a building before we consider replacing it? How much do we want to change the existing architecture?

As a professional, my job is to inform my client of the condition of their buildings and to present the options that the client may have with regards to improving the safety of those buildings. One way to get additional perspective on options or to guarantee that the considered options are good ones is to have a professional peer review, a second opinion.

In this case, we, the taxpayers and concerned parents, should have a significant role in this process because we are effectively the clients.

If Measure E passes, we will have money to proceed in an appropriate manner. We must first get our second opinion, referred to as peer review in the profession, which is standard practice for significant projects. Our project is both large and significant. This second opinion is most important at the very beginning of the process. There will be an expense for this peer review, but experience indicates that peer review always pays for itself, either by reducing costs, or avoiding costly mistakes.

I strongly suggest that the process for making these big decisions be made as open as possible with significant outreach to the community and that a peer review be an integral part of that process. We need:

1. An Advisory Committee that reports directly to the School Board that provides a public forum for the debate of these issues and
2. A professional peer review of the opinions in the ATI report.

We should start this process soon since we know we will be deciding on retrofitting measures in the near future.

Sincerely, E. Leroy "Roy" Tolles