ISD Didn't Get Their Ducts in a Row

As one of the most blogged stories, the Palmer School debacle as received the most print.  The award-winning historic preservation project was a clear success at the time of the ceremonial ribbon-cutting because it came from a partnership between the school district and a committee of citizens that represented many aspects of the community, i.e., historic preservation, building construction, engineering, education, etc.  It was a unique process set up by Superintendent Dr. Rock to provide stakeholder involvement at every step along the way from assessment, planning, design, and financing.  The project itself was a unique adaptive reuse of a historic property in the Truman National Historic Landmark District that moved professional administrators/educators to the historic Square area within walking distance to restaurants, shops, banking, churches, and governmental offices.  Other community partners such as adjacent churches and City Parks & Rec were brought into the project for cooperative and coordinated parking arrangements that worked very well.  The ISD and the community partners appeared to have all their “ducks in a row.”  Then along came Dr. Jim Hinson.  During construction, Hinson approved a change order removing all the return air ducts on the project to cheapen the HVAC system.  Unfortunately, this led to the HVAC system pulling return air from not just ceiling plenums but also from historic pipe chases that were allegedly connected to mold in the basement/cellar and bat feces in the attic.  After operating the system for 5 years, it eventually made a lot of district employees sick including Dr. Hinson who was actually hospitalized.  But rather than admit to any mistakes made, ISD hired Ken McClain’s HFM Law Firm to threaten legal action against their own insurance company for a problem they created.  Instead of taking any settlement money and using it to clean a prominent property dedicated to our community’s youth for 150 years in the heart of the Truman National Landmark District, the contaminated building is sold for subsidized senior housing, a building Dr. Hinson claimed could never be cleaned enough for ISD employees.  Even the developer who purchased the property refused to discuss environmental clean-up or to even acknowledge environmental issues associated with the property, thus, maintaining Dr. Hinson’s secrecy/coverup over the matter, and reinforcing our assessment that no one really knows what they are doing.  Keep in mind, if senior residents complain about respiratory health, it can be written off as a symptom of, well, just getting old.  The residential facility was planned without the involvement of community stakeholders and even excluded adjacent churches with over a 200-year history in the community.  In the Pitch article (08-02-2017), referenced in the previous post, it quotes Shawnee Mission School patron and librarian, Jan Bombeck’s take on Dr. Hinson, “Something’s wrong with this man.”  And as we think hard to attempt to explain that statement, we realize it may have something to do with his time occupying space at the Palmer Building.  As you know, there may be something to the old expression, “Bat Sh*t Crazy!”