Focus on TUSD - September 2007

Blenman Renovations Include New Classrooms, Resource Room and Outdoor Learning Area
After 65 years of serving students on Tucson's near north side, Blenman Elementary School was due for a facelift. In keeping with the new look, the additions in the new building project will be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.

In March, students will move from temporary classrooms in the multipurpose room and two portables into new quarters at the school at 1695 N. Country Club Road.

The $2.3 million project, which began in July and is financed through voter-approved bonds, will have:

• Nine classrooms measuring about 800 and 850 square feet each.
• Girls restroom with six toilets and four sinks.
• Boys restroom with two toilets, three urinals and four sinks.
• A 123-square-foot testing room.
• A 252-square-foot resource room that replaces the one torn down to build a breezeway between the new wing and the school. The new room will handle about 200 more students.
• A small courtyard that can function as an outdoor learning area.
• A new ramada that replaces the one removed to accommodate the new wing.

The design committee decided early in the planning process that the new facility should be energy efficient, blend in with the existing building and take into account the effect that an addition would have on a small campus.

With that in mind, the project features insulated glass, a tempered air system, CO2 sensors and modulating dampers, roof water supplemental irrigation for trees, upgraded wall insulation (roof R-30, walls R-12), natural light usage and waterless urinals.

The outside walls combine tinted, concrete masonry compatible with the original brick and stucco. The main roofs have built-up roofing with smooth emulsion coating. The canopy has clay tile roofing that matches the original roofing as close as possible.

The rooftop package heat pump units, which serve each classroom, will be controlled by all mounted programmable thermostats.

The outdated intercom system will be replaced.

Project committee members are TUSD Project Manager Sue Heathcote; parents, Francesca McBride and Kenneth New; teachers, Bridget Uzzzell and Sonya Norman; teacher and Site Council Facilitator, Jessica Minnich; Blenman faculty, Viola Pace; Bobbe Woods, former principal, and Henry Vega, former assistant principal; Principal Kathryn DeSalvo and Assistant Principal Robin Dunbar, and the architects.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations