Castle Rock board wants Vader school gone by end of summer
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 12:17 AM PDT
By Barbara LaBoe
Printable version
E-mail this articleCASTLE ROCK — The old Vader School may go out with one last bang, the Castle Rock School Board learned Tuesday night.
After more than a year of discussion, the state has approved the district’s demolition plan. District officials hope to have bids on the project within a month and want demolition completed by the end of the summer, Facilities Director Henry Karnofski told the board.
Before that happens, though, the Vader police chief and other law enforcement agencies want to use the building for one last educational event — a Lewis County SWAT team training.
During the training, some of the school doors will be blown off to allow officers to practice how to respond to such situations.
Karnofski said he doesn’t have a problem with the building being used for training or the loss of any interior doors. They’ll be demolished anyway. The district’s insurance agent also has signed off on the plan as long as the proper waivers are signed by law enforcement using the building.
Karnofski wanted the school board’s approval before giving the OK to detonate small explosives within the beloved former school.
School board members informally consented to the plan as long as it didn’t include exterior doors that would leave the condemned 1950s building open to vandals. Board member Bill Schumacher also said the SWAT exercise should be scheduled as close as possible to the demolition.
Karnofski also said he’d check with local SWAT team members to see if there are any other issues that should be addressed before granting permission.
The Castle Rock district absorbed all of the Vader district and buildings and patrons when the Vader district dissolved last summer. Despite assurances to the contrary, a glitch in state law means Vader residents won’t have to pay any school taxes until 2009.
The cost of the building demolition, though, won’t fall to Castle Rock taxpayers. The Legislature in 2007 approved $200,000 for the Vader demolition.
In other business, the board denied the high school baseball team request to camp out on the baseball field overnight Saturday as a team unity event. Despite a supervision plan by the coaches, board members said they worried about security and who might wander in or out of the field during the night. Associated Student Body students got to sleep inside the building earlier this school year, but board members said that was a more secure situation.
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