by John Dowd
The Corvallis School District has been working around a catastrophe for over three years as best they can. According to Pete Joseph, Corvallis School Superintendent, after three consecutive freezes in the winter of 2022, the old cafeteria and kitchen building was found to be unusable. Since then, it has been a constant struggle to keep students fed. However, as Joseph stated, thanks to diligence and hard work from staff, they have been able to make it work. Recently, those struggles seem to have borne fruit.
The freezes started in October of 2022. The third freeze over Christmas break caused a burst in the pipes and further damage that led to flooding of the kitchen. In 2023, when the leak was discovered, the school had it inspected and discovered asbestos (toxic when exposed). Additionally, the building was not up to code and had several other serious concerns. The issue of how to provide meals to students was addressed temporarily with sack lunches prepared elsewhere until the summer when they could really address the problem.
Looking on to the fall semester, Joseph said, “How are we gonna feed kids in the fall of 2023?” The district approached their insurance carrier about the concern and looked into the “excess use policy.” This would allow funds to temporarily deal with the problem in a more effective manner, until the kitchen was addressed or replaced. Joseph compared these funds to when car insurance provides a rental car while the damaged car is in the shop. These funds amounted to $25 million.
In the meantime, they would need to “stabilize the kitchen needs,” according to Joseph. The district settled on a big blue spill-over building, also called the Summit building. They believed this to be the best option. At that time, the building was being used for storage and occasional adult ed and adult fitness classes.
The “blue building,” now being used as the Corvallis School District kitchen and cafeteria, was finally finished late 2024. Eventually, the space will be utilized for charter school acivities. Photo by John Dowd.
After speaking with Liberty Mutual, the district’s insurance provider, the school board proposed utilizing and renovating the blue Summit building. When the district looked for quotes on renovating the blue building, the board discovered the cost would amount to around $700,000. According to Joseph, Liberty Mutual decided against this option, even though the school board felt this would be the best option available.
The district was asked to look again, and found a company, called “Kitchens To Go,” which was based out of Illinois. This would provide up-to-code trailer-based kitchens the school could use. However, the cost to rent these would be over $80,000 a month. Again, the insurance company turned the option down and decided to go with something else.
The insurance provider then decided to pay for the construction of a temporary “kitchen camp,” as Joseph referred to it. This was a collection of seven buildings, all trailers. However, these buildings did not stand up well to the Montana weather, and eventually developed numerous problems. Some of these issues included multiple workman’s comp claims, an oven door blowing off, kitchen staff slipping on ramps and the trailers freezing and failing to function.
In these structures, packed lunches were made for all the students who ate throughout the school, without a dedicated cafeteria location. Additionally, Joseph said the district received an unrealistic time frame from the insurance company on the project to deal with the old flooded cafeteria/kitchen. According to Joseph, Liberty Mutual did not seem to understand the gravity of the situation and how much time and money it would take to deal with the space. He believed it needed to be condemned.
After many issues, half finished construction projects and a district of frustrated staff, parents and students, the insurance company spent nearly $2 million trying to deal with the temporary kitchen problems. In the end, they purchased a pre-made metal building to cover the trailers, and finally the brakes were pressed to halt the project before this structure went up.
When the Insurance company discovered the metal building would not fix the problems with the kitchen camp, they finally awarded $2.6 million from the excess use policy to address the temporary food problems as the school district saw fit.
According to Joseph, from the beginning, the insurance company should have “let us make the decision that’s best for our community.” Utilizing the go ahead and funding from the insurance, the district chose to go ahead with renovating the blue building, at just over $70,000. This project was finished by late 2024. With the excess funding, the school also got rid of the trailer “kitchen camp,” and decided to best utilize the excess funding for something else the district desperately needed: a new middle school basketball, PE and Health facility. Additionally, they decided to utilize the pre-made metal building in this project to save costs.
“The greatest need that we had as a school system was another gym,” said Joseph. According to him, athletes often need to come in and start practices as early as 6 a.m., and the one gymnasium space was utilized for all school sports and games across the district. Some of these games and practices would generally happen at the same time in many other districts. This has led to difficult scheduling conflicts.
Additionally, the space is very small, and is also utilized for over a dozen gym classes as well as gatherings, band concerts and much more across all grade levels. This space was built in the 80’s. The school does have an even older gym, built before WWII. This older space is even smaller, the floor is old and uneven and it is utilized for theater and other activities.
“It’s been a struggle for 20 years,” said Joseph. “For a Class A school not to have multiple spaces for activities,” it’s really not enough, he said, especially for a district of over 1500 students.
Andy Knapp, a Corvallis High School PE teacher, and varsity girls basketball coach and middle school athletics teacher, talked about the old gym. “If you look at our secondary facility, it’s not much of one.” Knapp said practices start so early and the schedule is so difficult that some parents will not even let their kids participate in sports.
A new space would provide at least six extra baskets and, “give the kids more access,” and eliminate these super early practices. It would also lead to normal operating times and a much more versatile schedule. Multiple sports would be able to practice at the same time, instead of canceling practices due to scheduling conflicts, and the school district would be “finally getting caught up to other Class A facilities,” said Knapp. “Everybody is going to benefit.”
Corvallis School District plans to utilize the footprint, left behind by the “kitchen camp,” as the site on which to build its new Middle School basketball and athletics structure. Photo by John Dowd.
Joseph explained that, of all the projects so far, no taxpayer dollars were used. All the funding has come from the insurance claim. However, the gym and basketball courts, along with the blue building remodel and removal of the kitchen camp, will clean out the rest of the excess use funds. This will still not finish the gym. For that, the superintendent said the district will need to propose a bond. “To finish it out, we’re going to need a bond and we’re going to need public input.”
The initial construction of the gym will take place on top of the footprint left by the “kitchen camp.” This will be Phase 1. Phase 2 will be determined by the public. The district contracted with Dan McGee and Langlas and Associates, out of Missoula, for the new middle school gymnasium and eventual work on the old cafeteria. They hope this Phase 1 will be finished by June of 2025.
Eventually the blue building will become part of the charter school for food-to-farm courses and much more. For now they use it for a middle school and high school cafeteria, and to make and transport food to the primary school. As for the old cafeteria/kitchen space, nothing has yet been determined on how to proceed with that space.
“If we had just done this first and foremost,” said Joseph about the project with the blue building, then it would have saved everyone a lot of time, stress and money. “It’s my job to protect kids,” said Joseph, so he is used to looking at these issues with youth in mind.
For more information on all the projects to date, interested parties can look on the Corvallis District website, under school board agendas and included documentation.
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