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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Fredericksen Updates Board of Education, Community on Status of the Bennett Middle School Construction Project


At the Jan. 13 meeting of the Wicomico County Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. John Fredericksen updated the Board on the status of the Bennett Middle School project in Fruitland. This construction project is within budget and on track to open to students in August 2015, as originally scheduled, said Dr. John Fredericksen, Superintendent of Schools.


Whiting-Turner is doing an excellent job of managing this project, he said, and the school system is looking forward to having Bennett Middle school teachers and staff visit the building soon. “The construction project will be finished as scheduled within the next few months, and we will begin preparing the school to welcome its first students at the end of this summer.”

The new Bennett Middle will be a high-performance, LEED certified, energy-efficient school, as required by the state. The 161,304-square-foot school (including 3,000 square feet of community gym space) is designed to serve 988 students in grades 6, 7 and 8. The project is funded by Wicomico County and the State of Maryland.


No school renovation or construction project in Wicomico County takes place without a favorable recommendation from the County’s School Building Commission, prior to votes by the Board of Education to pursue a project and the Wicomico County Council to issue bonds to fund a project. State planning and funding approval is only granted after years of careful, detailed study.


Throughout this process, the Board of Education and its staff rely heavily on teams of competent and capable outside professionals in the design, engineering and construction fields. This is true from the selection of sites and various development studies that must be performed, through design and engineering and up through the construction of our school facilities. The County’s School Building Commission provides oversight, advice and guidance to help guide the school system through the entire process.

“Recent online comments have questioned aspects of the Bennett Middle project, including the soil at the site, the geothermal system for heating and cooling, and concrete conditions. I do not know what may have precipitated all of the recent talk, but I feel it is important to set the record straight,” Dr. Fredericksen said. Please know that:

Bennett Middle School is not sinking or experiencing any sort of settlement problems due to substandard soil conditions. These allegations are just not true. The soil conditions of this parcel of land were looked at early on in the process. While the original soil conditions may not have been ideal, extensive soil borings and analysis were done to determine the suitability of the site as part of the selection. It was determined that with the proper engineering, undercut, and fill, the site could be made suitable for building a school. These additional costs were factored in as part of the site selection process.

There have been questions with regard to ponding and drainage problems at the new school; again, this is not a problem. Unlike previous developed sites, Bennett Middle School’s site is constructed to incorporate several smaller runoff collection basins located around the site. These basins known as “submerged gravel wetlands” are now a state-required accepted practice as opposed to the once constructed storm water management ponds that can be seen at other school sites.These runoff control devices are indeed different from what we are all used to and by regulation these areas are required to be protected during the construction process. They cannot fully function until they are complete. This requires inlet protection, flow diversion and the use of temporary ponds to manage runoff and provide settlement and erosion control. All of this is inspected periodically by state inspectors to ensure compliance. Site drainage and management has been and remains an important aspect of this project and from all indications we believe that when all temporary measures have been removed, the site will be well drained as designed.

With regard to the new geothermal plant: All is well with the plant. The design is intact, there is no problem with the well field or well pipes, and no retrofit or redesign of the system is under consideration to incorporate boilers for heating. None of the rumors or allegations that the system is not working are true. It is true that the system is not operating at 100% on a continuous basis but that is because construction is still in progress and we are currently going through system checks, start-ups, and commissioning on various systems. It is also true that we have large hot water heaters as part of the original design but they are not boilers, they are only there to provide domestic hot water for the school. In fact we are beginning to operate the plant now and it seems to be working just fine. We are actually looking forward to the operation of the new system as it will be one of our most energy efficient schools when it becomes fully operational. Projections indicate that it will save us considerable dollars in energy costs to operate.


There has also been concern expressed about “cracking” of the concrete floors as a result of some sort of settlement.Again, this is not accurate.While there is a problem with the concrete flooring on the second floor it is not cracking, nor is it a structural problem. It appears to be a problem with the concrete and the finish. The concern has been looked into by the engineers and architects and the floor slab has been tested and analyzed. The entire matter has been reviewed by the School Building Commission and is being addressed by the Construction Manager and its contractors.It is worth noting that the new Bennett Middle School has been designed not to use vinyl tile flooring, but to have exposed polished concrete floors in most of the areas throughout the school for reasons of long term wear and ease of care. Therefore, it is very important that the final concrete floor finish be right and acceptable and we are working to make sure that happens.


As the new Bennett Middle School nears completion, planning is underway to complete the final phase of the James M. Bennett High School project. This will involve demolishing the old Bennett Middle and finalizing the use of the full Bennett site for the high school.


“We are pleased with the progress that is being made for Wicomico County students and families, and look forward later this year to providing the community with the opportunity to see firsthand how the school system, Board of Education, County government, and State are working together to provide an excellent learning environment for Wicomico students,” Dr. Fredericksen said.

16 comments:

  1. Sounds like a lot of CYA going on here. Still sounds like the problems are real and a concern.

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  2. I'm sure it is perfect. It is probably the most perfect building ever constructed. The public needs to learn that no criticism of the board of ed. or its leadership is ever accurate.

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  3. This guy is so full of ch!t it isn't funny. Believe what you want Ladies & Gentlemen but I have people ON LOCATION, professionals that are clearly more in the know than this clown.

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  4. I guess we all have to decide on who is providing the most credible information.

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  5. All construction should be halted until we have some kind of tax base to help pay for any new project. Pure stupidity!!!!!

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  6. Funny how local entities are now making public statements about the things you posted. If you hadn't exposed and published these issues do you think we would have ever found out about them?

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  7. 9:26, NO, and let me tell you why.

    Do you people have any idea how many people call me daily to tell me they had gone to the Daily Times or WBOC with a story and they not only never published them, in most cases they never returned the call.

    These are very important people who care about their community and they are constantly ignored.

    I can also tell you that there are a LOT of Reporters who actually call me about stories their company won't publish but they feel are very important.

    Your local media has a set agenda, period. It's all about what they want you to hear and covering their political arses/

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  8. The press release calls out the Wicomico County School Board Commission. Has this commission been reviewing all construction projects as stated? Who are the members of this commission and what are their experience or expert field? Does this commission provide insight to the BOE or are they just a figurehead. If the purpose of this commission is to save the taxpayer money on construction project, is it being fully utilized or is it being pushed off to the side? Or is this more song and dance?

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  9. 9:05, have you seen the school? You can't be serious about shutting it down. It's practically finished. There is one thing that should be shut, though.

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  10. As someone who has observed the construction at different intervals this is a lot of "BULL". If there is no cost overrun then there was an inflated bid process. I have seen completed areas that had to be tore up and redone because of screw ups. There should be a forensic audit done on this project as well as others in this County. A Forensic audit on this County's budget could very well show where hundreds of thousands of tax dollars could be saved. But the "GOOD OLE BOYS" will never allow that.
    I hope Bob Culver will consider such a move. I would rather see this than a BS audit. I believe this type of audit made public would show waste and truth about where tax dollars are being spent recklessly.

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  11. If there are no problems Dr. Fredericksen then release the findings of your construction inspections and reports you have received concerning these 'allegations. To take you on your word for it is a bit like 'if you like your doctor...'. Provide proof all is well at the construction site!

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  12. Just try to get public information from the central office if it's not info. they want you to have.

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  13. Someone with a doctorate should know that it is a water heater, not a "hot" water heater. It would be ridiculous to heat water that is already hot.

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  14. Shades of Bubba Comegys and then Liarton talking about Salisbury's screwed up sewage treatment plant -- on time, under budget, works fine!

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  15. The level of Dr. Fredericksen's commitment to honest communication, free of evasions and misrepresentations, is known throughout our community. In countless situations, his code of ethics has been remarkably obvious. No doubt, this is more of the same.

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  16. "additional costs factored in" - if they had built on another piece of land - they wouldn't have had "additional" costs. I believe the people who have worked on the school, driven bulldozers and dump trucks who say it is a mud bog, far more than I believe ANYTHING that comes from the BOE. And by the way, Matt Holloway sits on the BOE Building Commission. Get the picture now....

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