RED BLUFF – The Red Bluff Union School District will be hosting a community forum on October 29 to solicit input from residents and offer information on planned improvements to schools in the district using bond funds.

Residents of Red Bluff voted in November 2018 to provide the district with a bond for the facilities and in April the first of three bond sales took place, freeing up money to plan the process of rehabilitating facilities in the district.

The first order of business was to call in the district architect, Semingson and his associates, to conduct a school facility inspection to create a ranked list of the facilities most in need of renovation, according to a statement released on Monday by the Superintendent Cliff Curry.

A team of certified engineers and inspectors brought in by the architect analyzed all sites in the district and created an analysis report that the district planning team would use to plan future school obligation expenses. .

The report came to several conclusions. All sites had many temporary classrooms that needed to be replaced, each site had needed repairs to major systems, and some sites had more needs than others.

District schools are on average quite old. Construction in Bidwell began in 1942 and in Jackson Heights in 1952, with Vista starting in 1962. The newer school, Metteer, was built in 1986. Considering the life expectancy of the state for school buildings, 50 years old, district facilities are quite old by state standards.

In addition, the district’s temporary classrooms, designed with a useful life of 20 years, are mostly over 30 years old, many of which are over 40 years old. More than half of the classrooms in the neighborhood are located in these temporary buildings.

In order to take into account the contribution of staff, parents and the community, the district uses an electronic collaboration tool to solicit contributions on projects it should undertake with funds. Popular ideas for staff include replacing temporary classrooms with regular buildings, improving campus security, and repairing facilities like bathrooms.

The district will soon contact the community with the same tool to request the same contribution, according to the statement.

Planning will focus on replacing as many temporary classrooms as possible within the constraints of the California Public School Modernization Program, which provides matching funds for school facility rehabilitation and new construction.

The community forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29 at the Metter School Library. Those interested in the process and wishing to know more are invited to participate in this forum.