School in a daze

Staff

Published Thursday, March 30, 2006

Photo essay by Kari Lucin

WELLS - The United South Central School District has failed to pass a referendum for a new school three times, most recently in December 2005. Just 42 percent of voters were in favor of the $25 million project.

Because of a lighting and air quality project several years ago, the school can spend only about $35,000 a year on repairs.

The building in Wells is a hodgepodge of styles and eras, and as the building gained additions, it also gained a series of architectural curiosities such as windows to nowhere, odd-shaped or very small rooms and dead ends.

Construction began in 1932, and a fire caused them to continue building into 1933. Items leftover from major additions in the 1950s include a boomerang-patterned counter in the old home economics room, as well as original metal cabinetry.

Less benign remnants include an auditorium ceiling chock-full of asbestos and 1930s pipes covered with rusty buildup.

As the school has aged, the building has been extensively repaired, but new holes and new problems keep popping up. Water-damaged ceiling tiles and poor air quality and air circulation are just a few of the problems students and teachers put up with on a regular basis.

(Contact Kari Lucin at kari.lucin@albertleatribune.com or 379-3444.)

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