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Lakota Local superintendent highlights leaks, cramped spaces during Heritage school walkthrough
Summary
Superintendent Ashley Whiteley led a walkthrough of Heritage Early Childhood School and flagged persistent roof leaks, rotting wood, pipe bursts, cramped staff workrooms and a cafeteria too small for the student body; the district's master facilities plan will target similar fixes at two sister schools.
Ashley Whiteley, superintendent of Lakota Local Schools, led a walkthrough of Heritage Early Childhood School and pointed to recurring maintenance and space problems that staff said are affecting operations and student experience. "Let's take a walk and see what our current facilities look like here," Whiteley said as the group toured the building.
The building principal said crews put on a new roof last year but the school continued to experience leakage and "there was rotting wood," particularly around an exterior terrace area that allows water into interior spaces. "Safety is our number 1 priority," the principal said, describing a classroom pipe burst that required furniture replacement and noting that another similar incident followed a week later.
School staff described how a former workroom was reallocated to serve a speech pathologist, forcing copy and laminating equipment into a cramped area. That central hub is reserved for read-aloud time during the first 10 minutes of the day, which limits when teachers can produce materials and increases pressure between class bells, the principal said. "Only two students can fit in this space," staff noted of the converted workroom, calling it "tight quarters."
Staff and Whiteley also pointed to cafeteria limitations: the space cannot seat the entire student body at once, and high noise levels and sensory concerns affect some diners. Because parents who want to eat with their children cannot be accommodated indoors, the school has ordered picnic tables to allow supervised outdoor family lunches, the principal said.
Whiteley said Heritage shares many of these age-related problems with Woodland and Shawnee, calling the three buildings "the triplets," and added that the district's master facilities plan would address similar needs at all three sites. She closed the tour by thanking attendees for joining the walkthrough.
The walkthrough did not include formal votes or district decisions on specific repair contracts; Whiteley framed the visit as an on-site review of conditions that will inform the master facilities planning process.
