Project Profiles: Newark Unified School District
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Newark USD Discovered the High Cost of Inexpensive Hollow Metal Doors
A dozen years ago, the Newark, California, public school system in the east bay area near San Francisco was struggling with chronic graffiti problems, high entrance maintenance costs and frequent door replacements. They were searching for answers when Director of Facilities Larry Mara learned about Special-Lite FRP Doors at a trade show. Larry thought they looked durable, so he decided to try four pairs on the toughest location in the system -- the field-side gymnasium doors on the Junior High. Students were always kicking these doors open; destroying hollow metal doors in mere months. The district’s doors also had to be painted almost annually, so hollow metal doors were always being painted somewhere; driving up maintenance costs.
Six years ago, as Newark USD was getting close to passing a bond issue for renovations and new construction, Larry met Special-Lite sales rep Ted Smith of Silverado Sales. Larry had since come to appreciate the SL-17’s ability to resist vandalism and reduce maintenance costs, so he worked with Ted to specify Special-Lite as the district “no-sub” standard exterior door for both replacement and new construction.
Custom Colors Add More Life
Like many school systems in California, Newark USD has a district standard color which appears on lockers, chairs, wall panels, and many other furnishings, including interior and exterior doors. Early Newark orders were painted to match the district’s light blue standard color, but when the bond issue passed and hundreds of Special-Lite doors were specified, a custom-matched through-and-through FRP was created in “Newark Blue.” Special-Lite can offer custom FRP colors for orders of 100 doors or more.
Easy Cleaning FRP
To control their graffiti problem, Newark made it policy to remove it within 24 hours. Quick removal discourages repeat attacks, and the SpecLite3 FRP face sheets on the SL-17 made this easy to do without damaging the door finish. As a result, the graffiti problem at Newark has been virtually eliminated.
Bond Issues Don’t Pay for Maintenance
By 2003, the “test doors” on the gym were still in service, Larry Mara had retired, and the new Director of Facilities David Goldin was presiding over a major retrofit project involving the installation of more than 600 SL-17 FRP Doors with 10-32 Insert Frames on 10 schools in the system. New construction has since pushed the total door count past 700, and Mr. Goldin has moved on to the San Francisco Public Schools, where he has said he plans to continue solving entrance problems with Special-Lite FRP doors.
Even when school systems are successful in passing a bond measure to fund the construction of new schools, it won’t solve the problem of escalating operating and maintenance costs, unless building products and systems are specified that can reduce maintenance requirements while delivering longer service life, to provide the lowest possible lifecycle cost. Newark USD found that for exterior entrances, the right spec is the Special-Lite SL-17 FRP Door. Download print version (924 kb pdf).
“The bond program doesn’t pay for maintenance. We’re building all these new buildings but the bond program doesn’t add one new custodian to the program. This district made a decision to spend more money on certain products, bathroom partitions, Corian bathroom wall panels, FRP doors… things that will minimize the need for more custodians, because the money is not there.” - David Goldin