The initial design adopted by the Sitka Assembly gives the building a peaked roof. (Image: McCool Carlson Green)
The Assembly last night revisited a conversation it had at its last meeting about renovations to Pacific High School.
Earlier this month, Assembly members argued an early design for the school had a roof that appeared too flat to allow proper drainage. They insisted on a pitched roof instead. The City of Sitka owns the school buildings.
The change eliminated the school’s ability to use the roof as another space for students to work. School Board President Lon Garrison says district officials returned to the Assembly last night to get a clearer picture of what they wanted for the rest of the design, including plans to put a stairway up to the roof, with a ramp going across to a neighboring building.
Assembly member Thor Christianson said in the matter of the roof, the Assembly was exercising good stewardship of city buildings. But beyond that, he says, the Assembly is getting into micromanagement territory.
“I don’t care if there’s a stairway in there. I want a steep roof. So I can support this right now,” Christianson said. “The school board is another elected body. They’ve been entrusted by the people of Sitka to do these decisions. It’s not like they’re a committee that we appoint. I have no problem leaving the details up to them, and I see that stairway and that ramp as a detail.”
The ramp would go to the Southeast Alaska Career Center, also known as the SEACC center. It’s next door to Pacific High, and would be used for the school’s culinary arts program. At the earlier meeting, Assembly member Mike Reif raised questions about plans to add a kitchen to the SEACC center.
Sitka Schools Superintendent Steve Bradshaw said last night that those questions caught him off guard, and that the district has always planned to put a kitchen in the center.
“That doesn’t seem, or wouldn’t have been a problem in the past with the Assembly,” Bradshaw said. “It would have never come in front of the Assembly. So I’m concerned about why the question is there at this time.”
Reif said he supports schools but is just trying to make sure money on the project is spent wisely.
“We support schools differently,” Reif said. “I don’t think any of us at this table does not support it. The trust that the voters placed in me is to make sure that money is spent efficiently. Sometimes saying ‘No,’ or ‘Think of other things,’ is not being unsupportive; it’s allowing me the opportunity to support other programs the city needs.”
Voters approved funding for the Pacific High project in 2010. The state will pick up two-thirds of the more than $2 million project.
In the end, the Assembly approved letting school officials make the decisions about whether to put a kitchen in at the SEACC center, and whether a staircase goes into the Pacific High remodel. That said, a final design will come back to the Assembly for approval before the school district seeks bids for the work from contractors.
