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Tarrant touts positives of domes
Published 10/19/2007 in News : Education By Emily Behlmann
EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
LEOTI -- When Superintendent Lee Tarrant heard about it eight months ago, it sounded like a crazy idea -- a school made up of interconnected, super-insulated, steel-reinforced concrete domes.
But following two failed bond attempts to construct a more traditional, more expensive building to replace R.B. Stewart Elementary School, and after some research and visits to school districts that have tried it, he said the monolithic, or one-piece, dome concept didn't sound like such a bad idea.
He said he sees three positive points to the plan the Board of Education approved Oct. 8, which would issue $5 million in bonds to fund a five-dome complex north of Wichita County Junior High School -- they serve as tornado shelters, they're energy-efficient and they're cheap.
According to a press release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, roofs are the part of a building most vulnerable to damage, and wind tends to blow right over the top of domes, leaving them unscathed.
Communities in Ohio and Texas have used them as tornado shelters, because, according to David South, president of Monolithic Dome Institute of Italy, Texas, "it's concrete structure that is literally egg-tough," like an egg that can't be broken by a squeeze of the hand.
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This preliminary illustration shows the concept of the monolithic dome complex that would replace R.B. Stewart Elementary School in Leoti if voters approve a $5 million bond issue Feb. 5, 2008. The traditional buildings with rounded walls and domed roofs would be north of and connected to Wichita County Junior High School.
The institute also states that they cost about half as much to build, and that because they are insulated with polyurethane foam sandwiched between an Airform on the outside and concrete on the inside, they cut down on energy costs.
The concrete can store heat for days or longer, so a large crowd will barely heat a gym and a cold night will barely cool the building, South said.
Yet none of that matters if the proposal is rejected by Wichita County voters on Feb. 5, 2008.
The community voted down an $8 million bond issue in April for a kindergarten-sixth-grade traditional building attached to the high school, plus an $11.1 million bond issue about four years ago for a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade building adjoined to the high school.
This $5.5 million dome project, which would be covered by the $5 million in bonds plus $400,000 in capital outlay funds and $100,000 in interest on the bonds, helps address what board member Lanny Mehl said he thinks was the community's No. 1 objection to the initial proposals -- the cost.
During a visit to a monolithic dome school in Texhoma, Texas, there was some initial reluctance on the part of the school board and the teachers to the novelty of the design, Mehl said, and the Texhoma buildings weren't necessarily very appealing cosmetically.
South concedes they have a different look that some think is strange, but he doesn't consider that a negative.
"They give a very modern look," he said. "It tells you the community is moving into the next century.
Mehl said opinions improved when visitors to Texhoma were assured that cosmetics could be addressed even with the dome design, and that the structure wouldn't be like an igloo as much as a traditional building with rounded walls and domed roofs.
The elementary teachers who would be working there still had a few concerns with the details of initial plans, according to Birdena Pridey, a fourth-grade teacher who discussed the plans with Leland Gray, the architect the board voted to hire on Oct. 8.
They wanted bathrooms closer to classrooms, equally sized classrooms and enclosed walkways, among other things, and plans were revised to meet most requests. All the classrooms are 1,010 square feet, with bathrooms just outside their six-classroom "pods," except in the dome for the youngest students. There, classrooms are 980 square feet because there is a bathroom in each, according to preliminary architect's drawings.
Pridey said that although she doesn't know how teachers will vote, she thinks they responded favorably to discussions with Gray.
"He either changed it or explained why" he couldn't, she said.
Several teachers declined to comment on the proposal Thursday afternoon.
District employees and board members also don't know how the rest of the public will vote, but Tarrant said he thinks most people agree the current elementary school -- with termite damage, a room deemed unfit for use, cracked walls and other problems -- is unusable in its current state.
The strategy for this bond issue, he said, is not to focus so much on problems with R.B. Stewart Elementary as it is to focus on what the board sees as benefits of the dome proposal.
Mehl said he's optimistic about February's election, and South said experience in schools constructed since his first in Emmett, Idaho, in 1986 has shown him that might make sense.
"I've found that schools that have a hard time passing a bond find this way easier to pass," South said.
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