Read Transcript:

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Mark Barga: Welcome everybody to the Better Learning Podcast.

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I’m Mark Barga, and I am here with Dr. Tim Matlack, Ken Bonkoski and Phil Leinbach, and they’re gonna tell us a story of this incredible school district and everything that you guys have navigated for the last several years.

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But first, let’s start with some quick background.

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Ken, why don’t we start with you?

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Tell us a little bit about yourself and what brings you to the table today.

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Ken Bonkoski: So this is my 23rd year in school.

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basically started out in, uh, as a tech and then, uh, I’ve been running my business consecutively for 30 years.

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Um, got to Antietam in 2018 and, uh.

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Which I felt like was my calling because the school was struggling.

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Uh, there was not a lot of stuff done to it, uh, because of resources.

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It was nothing that was chosen to be that way.

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so started off in the beginning, uh, you know, trying to get things up to par, you know, better classroom situations, uh, you know, conditions was, was a big thing.

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We were dealing with old age.

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You know, just regular maintenance of, of the daily stuff, like your floors and stuff like that.

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It was, it was a challenge and it was, it’s been a challenge ever since it started out with those types of things.

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As far as just getting a, you know, ’cause I feel this way, you know, you give somebody a good environment, it only enhances their abilities.

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So my whole thing is to do, give what I can and, and luckily I’ve, you know, I’m very blessed with my skills and my knowledge, so I try
to use those resources and like people, like Phil and I have a good network that we’ve, um, established since, you know, I’ve had ongoing.

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But coming here I’ve been able to branch it out even more because I’m in a different region from Montgomery County to Berks County.

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Mark Barga: Well, we’re gonna, we’re gonna pick your brain on some of those particular skills here in a moment.

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Tim, tell us a little bit about your background.

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Tim Matlack: So I’ve been in education for 21 years, um, 17 of them with Antietam School District.

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So I spent 10 years as a classroom teacher, a high school English teacher, five years as an assistant principal.

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Um, and then this is my second year as superintendent.

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So been part of the community for a while.

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It’s important to me.

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Mark Barga: It’s probably been two boring years

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Tim Matlack: Oh, Absolutely.

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It’s been a snooze fest,

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Mark Barga: We’ll hear more about that in a minute.

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Yeah.

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Thanks Tim.

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Phil, tell us a little bit about yourself.

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Phil Leinbach: Sure.

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I’ve been here with EM Architects for 35 years.

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And when I started here, we had ongoing projects with the Antietam school district.

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We’ve worked, I think, on every building, uh, in the district at various times and, uh, obviously

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different

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administrations.

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And, uh, when Ken came on board, we went through some projects together and, my background is similar to Ken’s.

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I grew up in a construction family, so I bring a practical application of designing what you can build, build it efficiently, effectively, and I want it to be around in 25 years without headaches.

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And, and we lean heavily, obviously, on the educators to get spaces that they need.

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To facilitate the educational process and, and curriculum that they have, implemented.

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And then we lean heavily on people like Ken to make sure they can maintain and keep these spaces working the way that they’re supposed to.

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So education doesn’t notice that it’s being impacted.

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So, uh, we’ve had a great relationship with Antietam over the years and, uh, while this one kind of came together in a little bit of an unusual way, it’s, it’s been a good one and we look forward to keep.

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Uh, this going and, and see the project come to full fruition.

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Mark Barga: Well, so yeah,

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it has been a little unusual.

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I think we can say.

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So, you know, every, our audience is extremely familiar with school construction processes and conventional, unconventional, uh, places where those journeys begin.

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And this certainly is a little bit unconventional here.

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So can you tell us a little bit about how this journey began for you guys?

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Phil Leinbach: I’ll start off.

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We had, uh, been contacted by the, uh, business manager for the district, and we had scheduled a meeting for, I think it was the week of
August of 2023, uh, to meet with the superintendent, the business manager, and Ken to talk about some work to repair some entrance systems.

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And lo and behold, just a week, week and a half prior to that, July 23rd hit.

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And Ken, you should probably take it from there ’cause you were living it, it firsthand.

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Ken Bonkoski: yeah.

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So it was July 9th, uh, of 23.

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It was a Sunday and actually I was having, I had my own project going on in my own house.

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I was building an addition.

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So I had been looking at the weather that day and I live, uh, 15 minutes from here.

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And, uh, we looked at it, we were digging footers and all, and we saw that the weather was coming and we were like, oh, by 11 o’clock we gotta wrap this up, get everything covered up.

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So we did.

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I buy lunch from my guys.

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Were sitting there and all this rain started happening, like rain that I’d never seen before.

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And this was even at my own

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home.

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And, uh,

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we then I jumped on the cameras at the school because we had already had.

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So a little bit, uh, back up a little bit on that one.

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So we actually were in the process of restoring the creek walls from a 2020 storm.

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Okay.

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Uh, when I say repairing, just putting back as in kind nothing to remediate any flooding, uh, stuff like that.

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It was just to put the walls back.

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They had been taken out in 2020, so that was a two year process to get all the permitting in price.

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So, and a lot of snags went along the way with getting the job started because the EPA and all that stuff that we had to go through, so they wound up.

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Not getting to the point of starting when we’re supposed to.

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That, that year, that would be, uh, 2022.

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Uh, summer of 2022, we were supposed to start and it got pushed and we couldn’t attain materials because after COVID we were having a huge problem with, uh, shortages with factories and stuff.

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And this happened to be a block we were using a retaining wall block, and so they couldn’t fulfill our order, so we had to pivot and redesign the wall to another build.

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Another block.

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So with the long, and the short of that was we didn’t get as far as we wanted that year, and we had restrictions in the creek because it’s a, a natural wild stream for trout.

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So we wound up having to, our window was January 2nd to, October 29th, uh, was the only time we’re allowed to obstruct that stream, meaning you have to dam it up, bypass it.

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So they stopped that year, came back the year of 2023, late.

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They couldn’t get it to end up, we had already had a project on the corner of the intersection there that PennDOT was doing, who had taken the whole, uh, roadway out there.

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There was a, it was a cause it was a culvert and they were reconstructing that.

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So we already had Creek fundamentals going on.

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And so my concern that day was we knew that the creek was bypassed up ahead and all that.

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So I got on the cameras, I saw all the two, two foot, uh, ADS pipes hanging outta the creek.

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So I jumped in my car, took my worker, my brother, and then I called everybody, our crew in, and we got there.

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And by that time it was roaring, but it wasn’t, didn’t break the bank.

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at this time, it just kept raining and raining and raining like no other, and then it just came up.

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What happened was that a building had collapsed on the corner and we were holding through for the, I wedged the door shut.

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We had barricaded the best we could with the time we had.

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And we wound up, uh, holding until the building let loose up the street and then that debris came down and smashed through the glass.

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And then that’s when it just totally ran through the entire building.

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And then that was when we lost it.

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And, uh, that went on for,

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well, we

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were there for six hours till it, it basically stopped raining ’cause we couldn’t get out ’cause there was rapids all around us.

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And then.

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At that point when after the rain had stopped and started to calm down a little bit, the roadway was gone.

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You know, all the, the two blocks up above the school were totally devastated.

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I mean, the road you couldn’t even drive, it was on passable.

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So we had to jump in the equipment, start pushing the debris away so we can get everybody out.

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then from there, uh, basically started a recovery process that was just.

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Until this day, I can’t even tell you all the different things that I’ve, that we’ve dealt with.

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Like for instance, uh, you know, now we’re, we’re mid-summer, right?

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So now we’re thinking, okay, where are we going with these kids?

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Um, so basically with that being said, we started filling out our resources.

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We had a lot of pushback with the neighborhood, with the, with, with community members and stuff like that.

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So we were fighting many different fronts with this to get the kids back in school.

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So we wound up coming up with putting, some of the high school kids at, uh, which is now our courtesy.

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It was an elementary at the time, but now is, um, uh, intermediate school.

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And we wound up putting some there and then down the street to a block away was a church that had unused, uh, classroom space that they used to have for their own schooling at one time.

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And so we, uh, had to pivot, get in there while the electric was inadequate.

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We had no air conditioning.

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It had all these challenges ahead of us, so we had to pivot.

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Go in there, rewires areas to be able to sustain some small air conditioning systems.

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We had to do internet, we had to put all the infrastructure in.

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We needed They didn’t have it.

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So we had a quick throw that together and then that took up some of the space.

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But now we had that.

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So basically we placed the high school kids that year.

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Okay.

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Then after that, now we’re going through the process of how are we moving forward?

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Where are we going?

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So our options were very limited, and that by this time, Phil had gotten in, involved with us at this point.

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And, um, with everything going on, and then we started looking at all different avenues.

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We looked at an old school that was originally the school’s propert y. It was just worse than any of our buildings was to begin with.

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So it was just a, a bad move.

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It would’ve, honestly, if we would’ve made that move, we wouldn’t be sitting here today.

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Because it would’ve just been horrendous.

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the amount of would’ve took the school to put that together.

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And so we wound up at that point saying, okay, we’re gonna build a K-3 back.

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We’re gonna take the high school kids and put the high school back to the high school.

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’cause the high school used to be the high school.

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The last time it was a high school was in 1989.

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And then, then they shifted the kids down to the site that we’re talking about that flooded.

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And then they didn’t use that building.

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And then Phil came back into play for that particular building because this, the district needed to expand again.

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They got rid of the building, let it sit for so many years, un uninhabited it, the township chain zoning at the time.

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So now we buy the building back.

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They go through this whole struggle in 2004 to try to put the school back so to be able to use the school again as a school.

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So there was a lot of fundamentals and Phil’s more familiar with all that than I am because that was in 2004.

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And, but what it wound up doing was handcuffing the school for a lot of years down the road, all of our struggles have been parking this and that.

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It’s an inner city school and, the way of the world that we’re in today, nobody wants to be un inconvenienced.

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Nobody wants to.

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say, Hey, there’s a school there, you know, you gotta live near a school.

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I mean, that’s how it happens, you it, it, growing up in the inner city, that’s how it was for me.

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You know, we live close to a school.

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You, you had to deal with the environment.

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That’s just the schools are important.

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Schools are number one, you know what I mean?

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Not your, you know, inconvenience of your parking spot being missing and stuff like that.

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So that kind of morphed into when we got back to try to change this back to a high school.

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We had the same battles again with the same people.

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And we, you know, Phil, it was just so much work that they had to do to, to prove that we can exist here and we’re still dealing with it today.

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We don’t even have proper parking around the school because they put permit parking in.

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And that doesn’t allow us to, for our staff and any visitors to park on the street.

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So that’s a huge burden that we’re still dealing with today.

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But getting back to the story of how we got to that.

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So now we need to put that back as a high school.

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Okay, this is where Phil came in and their team, and I mean they scrambled.

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I mean everybody did.

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I mean, because the amount of time that we had to do the design build, implement was unprecedented.

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Like what they had to do to get us on print to get us to this and to try to figure out was monumental on in itself.

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Now you talk about getting in there to put science rooms back, you know all this, all the fundamentals.

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We had a gym there.

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It’s not as big as the gym we, we just lost.

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So that’s a big deficit for the high school kids, you know, but we we’re making it work and we got the building back.

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So now Phil comes in and he thinks and does his design, and we, him and I work through all of this together, and they get, so now we’re back to like an $8 million reno to get that back to where we need to function again.

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So that took, started to take place, a year and a half ago.

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And then, started in May.

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We started beforehand.

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We started to try to move things along while school was in session at that time.

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We had the younger kids there.

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We had the kids that were originally back in there since 2004, was the K-2?

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Phil Leinbach: Yeah.

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If you remember, we started out designing to expand.

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Mm-hmm.

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The primary, I think the fourth grade at that point in time.

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Ken Bonkoski: Yes.

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Phil Leinbach: So that was almost instantly after the flood.

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Ken Bonkoski: Mm-hmm.

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Phil Leinbach: And then by the time we had it bid, which I think was we, we pretty much went from, we need to figure something out.

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And within a few weeks, made a decision we’re gonna designed to add classroom space.

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Mm-hmm.

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To take that area that hadn’t been renovated from the 2004 project and expand it, uh, for more student space.

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Mm-hmm.

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Because we had that in hand and by the time we bid it then thoughts were starting to percolate to change that back to the high school use.

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Mm-hmm.

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But it was bid as elementary grades.

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Ken Bonkoski: That’s right.

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Phil Leinbach: And started construction.

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And that’s, I guess, about the time you came on board because the, uh, Dr. Rocklin, who was superintendent and dealt with the initial issues outta
the shoot, um, I don’t know how many, you know, scenarios, probably six to eight different scenarios just of how to get school started that fall.

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And then at the same time, what’s our long-term plan?

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Multiple solutions that we looked at there.

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And then at that point in time when you decided that was gonna become the high school, that was kind of coinciding with what do we do with the present site of the old high school?

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We knew by, really within weeks of the flood that we weren’t going to recover the high school for use because basically while the whole
building wasn’t under water, the critical infrastructure and the boiler room and the switchgear were under six, seven feet of water.

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And Ken alluded to the issues post COVID.

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You weren’t getting switchgear for that building for at least a year.

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Yep.

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So we could clean it up, do whatever we want, but we didn’t have the power sources there to condition the building to keep it from growing mold and all the moisture issues that we would be dealing with till we had permanent power service.

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And the other thing, we had hoped FEMA would step up and provide some financial assistance and they gave us absolutely nothing.

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And so a little bit of trying to support that with the help of the county, uh, throwing their weight behind us saying, Hey, we need some help down here.

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FEMA kind of left us high and dry.

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I think we kind of knew that in September.

00:15:49.609 –> 00:15:52.759
And we kind of had an inkling that we had to keep moving without them.

00:15:52.759 –> 00:16:04.279
So we lost 110,000 square feet of education space for grade seven to 12 and our district administration office, and to try to rebuild that.

00:16:04.584 –> 00:16:07.865
I think we were throwing numbers around in dollars at that day.

00:16:07.865 –> 00:16:10.865
We were probably looking at $60 million that the district didn’t have.

00:16:11.225 –> 00:16:20.585
So now we’re forced to do something with money we don’t have, and no resource financially to replace in-kind, the building that we lost.

00:16:20.585 –> 00:16:26.715
And so it was a real exercise in pivoting.

00:16:27.375 –> 00:16:35.205
But it wasn’t just in construction, which we’re mainly concerned with as architects, but educationally, how do you get these programs in here?

00:16:35.294 –> 00:16:42.944
What’s the best resource and best location to educate children with the limited funds that we have?

00:16:43.004 –> 00:16:50.894
And that’s really what you jumped in the middle of and, and Ken alluded the dynamics of the community while supportive.

00:16:52.064 –> 00:16:54.174
Nobody likes uncertainty.

00:16:54.174 –> 00:17:02.891
And so we were dealing with not so much of an animosity, but I just think human nature and reacting to, we wanna know what’s going on.

00:17:02.891 –> 00:17:02.951
Yeah.

00:17:02.951 –> 00:17:03.431
Frustration.

00:17:03.581 –> 00:17:07.631
And sometimes you need to know what you need to know, when you need to know it.

00:17:07.631 –> 00:17:09.812
And, again, human nature we’re impatient.

00:17:09.812 –> 00:17:12.362
They want all the answers, and we didn’t have them all at the time.

00:17:12.362 –> 00:17:14.754
So it was, a design process.

00:17:15.099 –> 00:17:18.099
It was educational programming and it was also,

00:17:18.207 –> 00:17:19.107
community,

00:17:19.312 –> 00:17:24.472
effort to keep them informed as best we could and assure them your best interests

00:17:24.472 –> 00:17:25.132
are at heart.

00:17:25.327 –> 00:17:27.427
Mark Barga: And with change comes friction.

00:17:27.427 –> 00:17:28.297
We know this, right?

00:17:28.507 –> 00:17:36.487
And, and comes a new superintendent in the midst of this who’s a community educator, a school leader devoted to this district.

00:17:36.727 –> 00:17:38.617
And so, Tim, you stepped into this situation.

00:17:39.307 –> 00:17:41.347
You know, in the midst of real chaos.

00:17:41.347 –> 00:17:41.467
Tim Matlack: Yeah.

00:17:41.557 –> 00:17:42.217
Mark Barga: Um, talk a little

00:17:42.217 –> 00:17:42.307
bit

00:17:42.357 –> 00:17:42.467
Phil: about

00:17:42.467 –> 00:17:42.587
that.

00:17:42.742 –> 00:17:52.132
Tim Matlack: So just as part of the conversation, and so everybody listening understands the Antietam School District, we’re only about four square miles worth of space.

00:17:52.411 –> 00:17:58.586
And we sit right next to Reading School District, which again, while not large population wise, is much larger.

00:17:58.826 –> 00:18:09.626
So we have about 1100 students in the district, and we’re a Title One school, so our budget of expenditures is like about 29 million, uh, total.

00:18:09.956 –> 00:18:21.778
So when you look at us and then you look around the county at districts that are about the same student population size, like our budget is significantly smaller than those other districts.

00:18:21.808 –> 00:18:29.908
Um, and in addition for our community, one of the things that they struggle with is the fact that the community itself is, is residential.

00:18:29.908 –> 00:18:35.818
We don’t have a lot of businesses, so the tax base is the residents bear the burden essentially.

00:18:36.118 –> 00:18:40.348
So, uh, when there’s any kind of tax impact on things that are happening.

00:18:41.203 –> 00:18:44.773
It’s in property tax that it’s being felt so,

00:18:44.848 –> 00:18:47.668
Mark Barga: many of these homeowners, we should say were affected by the flood.

00:18:47.748 –> 00:18:48.438
And the flood.

00:18:48.438 –> 00:18:48.798
Really?

00:18:48.888 –> 00:18:49.128
Yeah.

00:18:49.128 –> 00:18:51.468
I mean, this was for folks outside of this region.

00:18:51.468 –> 00:18:53.298
The National Guard came in to help.

00:18:53.298 –> 00:18:56.388
I mean, this was a significant event for this community.

00:18:56.488 –> 00:19:16.918
Tim Matlack: Yeah, so in, in what Phil and uh, Ken were alluding to, we have now we’ve taken essentially the population of the entire school district
of 1100 pupils and you’ve jammed them into a block and a half worth of space in a residential area and all the staff that needs to be, so it.

00:19:16.992 –> 00:19:20.832
creates a lot of tension and friction, like, and we understand that.

00:19:20.996 –> 00:19:32.276
There was a lot to navigate there and a lot of unknown where, like Phil was saying, there were plans and then as Ken had mentioned, looking at one of the other facilities nearby, determining like, no, that’s not gonna work.

00:19:32.276 –> 00:19:35.336
Well, we had already communicated like we were looking at this.

00:19:35.336 –> 00:19:38.096
So then there is an expectation of like, oh, there’s a direction.

00:19:38.126 –> 00:19:39.566
Oh no wait, that’s not the direction.

00:19:39.566 –> 00:19:45.072
And so again, it just compounds the frustration of It becomes the narrative of, are you lying?

00:19:45.222 –> 00:19:45.762
Are you covered?

00:19:45.762 –> 00:19:48.672
Like, and that’s what, and I understand why they’re frustrated.

00:19:48.852 –> 00:19:51.132
It, it impacts the entire community.

00:19:51.420 –> 00:19:56.310
It was difficult for me coming in initially that a lot of that had taken place.

00:19:56.580 –> 00:20:01.830
Now I benefited, I think from the fact that I’d had 15 years with the district prior.

00:20:02.070 –> 00:20:10.860
So I, I was given a little bit of grace when I say something that people are gonna like, okay, he’s, he’s not lying, he is not covering something up.

00:20:11.040 –> 00:20:12.480
So I appreciated that.

00:20:12.930 –> 00:20:17.057
Um, but when I came in, the plans were already pretty much in motion.

00:20:17.057 –> 00:20:20.897
Like I, I walked into something that was already moving.

00:20:20.897 –> 00:20:30.467
So I think in my estimation, because of Ken, Phil, I, I walked into a decent situation, like things were already in motion.

00:20:30.737 –> 00:20:42.609
I just kind of came along and joined, joined the fight at that point, if I had had to deal with what Dr. Rocklin was dealing with prior, like that would’ve been just a lot worse.

00:20:42.669 –> 00:20:50.889
So I think from my perspective, when I came on, what I was trying to do is make sure we’re communicating with the community that we’re, we’re doing the best we can.

00:20:50.889 –> 00:20:52.359
We’re gonna keep you informed.

00:20:52.749 –> 00:21:00.492
And then as we went along, for example, when we, we reached the point where we had settled on what we felt like the design was gonna be.

00:21:01.002 –> 00:21:03.012
Phil came to a board meeting, presented.

00:21:03.012 –> 00:21:05.622
We did have some community members there.

00:21:05.982 –> 00:21:15.231
Uh, they gave some feedback about, at that point we were looking at space, um, that would be like cafeteria and then a smaller gymnasium space.

00:21:15.231 –> 00:21:26.586
And there was a real frustration point for the community about like, we lost a huge gymnasium in that old building and now our intermediate building has a gym.

00:21:26.826 –> 00:21:30.816
However, like you, you can’t have competition there.

00:21:30.816 –> 00:21:38.676
Like there’s a set of bleachers, like kind of inset and one wall on one end of the court that you could fit 20, 25 people.

00:21:38.976 –> 00:21:42.876
So we only had the high school gymnasium at that point.

00:21:43.236 –> 00:21:44.826
So there was a lot of feedback around.

00:21:45.201 –> 00:21:50.316
We need gym space, so that was another pivot moment of, okay, hand and fill.

00:21:50.316 –> 00:21:53.376
Like now we need a full size gym.

00:21:53.376 –> 00:21:57.606
And they had to rethink again, the entire building and come back to us.

00:21:57.696 –> 00:22:00.906
And that happened in a couple iterations as like questions came up.

00:22:00.906 –> 00:22:02.376
We’d say, well, can we do this?

00:22:02.376 –> 00:22:06.066
And then that piece about where we are financially.

00:22:06.326 –> 00:22:11.576
On Phil’s end, he, they’re trying to scramble like, okay, well if we did that, here’s what the price impact is gonna be.

00:22:11.606 –> 00:22:12.626
Oh, can’t do that.

00:22:12.776 –> 00:22:24.746
So it was a lot of cooperation there and I appreciate AM and Phil and all the time that they took to work with us as we were trying to work through like, what is possible and what can we actually afford to do.

00:22:25.070 –> 00:22:30.794
Mark Barga: So this was a, you know, really a seismic change in the district, on very short notice.

00:22:30.794 –> 00:22:31.154
Right.

00:22:31.154 –> 00:22:38.024
And so it’s a, it’s an interruption that nobody wanted, nobody saw coming, a very unconventional start to school construction.

00:22:38.024 –> 00:22:39.344
But here you are, right?

00:22:39.344 –> 00:22:45.314
And so you have this challenge and there’s also an opportunity, right?

00:22:45.314 –> 00:22:49.004
There’s also an opportunity, right, to strengthen the district.

00:22:49.154 –> 00:22:49.454
Right?

00:22:49.694 –> 00:23:08.279
So tell me a little bit about your approach, Tim, and both helping frame that you know, process for folks, build consensus with all the
stakeholders, community, faculty, families, board, um, as far as getting people to see, like, nobody asked for this, but we’re going up from here.

00:23:08.789 –> 00:23:19.079
Tim Matlack: Yeah, so in most of the communication that we try to do, we try to focus on the district’s mission statement, which emphasizes togetherness and community involvement.

00:23:19.079 –> 00:23:27.299
And so we try to make sure that we’re communicating consistently with the community, with the board, with staff, to make sure people are aware of what’s going on.

00:23:27.749 –> 00:23:37.449
Uh, and in terms of the buy-in, I think one of the things that helped us was when we installed the modular units that the students in K-3 are working in now.

00:23:37.689 –> 00:23:51.879
For the people who were most directly affected when 1100 students were in a block and a half worth of residential space, once K-3 had moved out and moved back to the old site where the old, middle, senior high school had been.

00:23:52.299 –> 00:23:53.409
It was a little bit of like.

00:23:53.719 –> 00:23:59.029
A deep breath because that was the opportunity to say like, okay, it’s gonna be okay.

00:23:59.029 –> 00:24:03.679
We don’t have everybody smashed into all this little space right here, right now.

00:24:03.979 –> 00:24:13.579
So I, that helped us a little bit and when we’ve communicated, we tried to maintain that idea of this is an opportunity for us to improve.

00:24:13.579 –> 00:24:15.199
It’s an opportunity for us to grow.

00:24:15.469 –> 00:24:21.649
Um, we try not to perseverate on the challenge, like, look to, here’s what we have ahead of us.

00:24:21.899 –> 00:24:33.980
And I do know, like for our staff, especially in those modular units, as they’re, they’re looking out windows, watching that building go up, like there is a sense of anticipation and excitement about like, getting into it and seeing what it’s gonna be.

00:24:34.322 –> 00:24:40.739
We’ve had a couple of instances where we’ve had students give some ideas about what their new building is gonna be or what it should be.

00:24:41.069 –> 00:24:45.479
Uh, one of them was a steel signing ceremony that we did as just to kick off.

00:24:45.829 –> 00:24:53.959
And we had our first graders write about it and they were saying that we needed a trampoline, that um, there should be a stained glass window.

00:24:54.019 –> 00:24:56.359
And I’m turning to Phil like, oh, is that in the plans?

00:24:56.359 –> 00:24:57.799
Do we have a stained glass window?

00:24:58.039 –> 00:25:07.232
And recently, uh, the Secretary of Education came to us and we visited a classroom and she asked them the same question and she got in trampoline again.

00:25:07.492 –> 00:25:08.452
A waterpark.

00:25:08.602 –> 00:25:10.342
Uh, so like, just letting you know.

00:25:10.612 –> 00:25:12.832
Now Phil, we need, we need to look at the waterpark.

00:25:12.837 –> 00:25:13.287
The creek right there.

00:25:13.397 –> 00:25:13.687
Yeah.

00:25:13.687 –> 00:25:14.692
Their creek is right there.

00:25:15.022 –> 00:25:21.892
So the kids are also seeing this building come up out of the ground, and I think it’s because of their age.

00:25:21.892 –> 00:25:25.102
I, I, it’s probably a little different, that excitement that staff has.

00:25:25.102 –> 00:25:28.612
They don’t quite, you know, visualize what it’s going to be yet.

00:25:28.612 –> 00:25:30.712
But I’m looking forward to the moment where.

00:25:30.997 –> 00:25:47.857
We opened those doors for the first time and we had those kids walk into the building and seeing their faces because ultimately those modular units, I
know a lot of people in the community, myself included, when you first hear modular units, you’re thinking like, oh boy, what is this gonna look like?

00:25:48.034 –> 00:25:50.014
It is a decent space.

00:25:50.147 –> 00:25:50.867
It’s not great.

00:25:50.927 –> 00:25:52.217
It’s a little tight.

00:25:52.217 –> 00:25:52.847
It’s crowded.

00:25:53.207 –> 00:26:10.995
It’s not something that is meant to be a long term solution because for 5, 6, 7 year olds, like they take it out on, on materials and things, so it’s good to have the new building going in, but right now they’re in a safe place where they are learning.

00:26:10.995 –> 00:26:17.877
So it’s, good opportunity for everybody to see, this is where you are now.

00:26:17.907 –> 00:26:30.117
And then when they walk into that new building and are in for all of them, it will be the first time that they’re in a school building, the ones who are going to be attending there because, uh, because of the grade span.

00:26:30.117 –> 00:26:37.797
So everybody who had been in the, what is now the old high school will have moved up into other buildings.

00:26:37.797 –> 00:26:38.067
So,

00:26:38.412 –> 00:26:46.332
Mark Barga: and sometimes when you see the way things had always been for a long time and then you see like a, this temporary stopgap solution.

00:26:46.857 –> 00:26:52.077
It does also help you think about, well, what do we actually want the next chapter to look like?

00:26:56.887 –> 00:27:01.627
You know, when we work with schools at K-12 it’s not just about furniture design, it’s about impact.

00:27:01.867 –> 00:27:06.007
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00:27:06.367 –> 00:27:12.637
From that first conversation to the final walkthrough, we’re focused on creating spaces that actually work for the kids.

00:27:13.057 –> 00:27:14.407
Teachers and the community.

00:27:14.707 –> 00:27:19.987
So if you’re looking to do more than just check a box on your next project, let’s talk Visit k12.com.

00:27:19.987 –> 00:27:21.337
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00:27:25.237 –> 00:27:28.717
and see how we’re helping schools transform learning one student at a time.

00:27:29.047 –> 00:27:33.127
Because at K12 it’s not just about projects and furniture, it’s about purpose.

00:27:37.913 –> 00:27:49.343
Mark Barga: So tell me a little bit about the design process as far as, you know, yes, it was accelerated, but it was still an opportunity to think clearly and deeply about what these learning environments might be for these students going forward.

00:27:49.825 –> 00:27:58.651
Phil Leinbach: As we had alluded and, Ken had stated, we initially started out with the solution to add the classroom spaces and what was the primary center, which is now the high school.

00:27:59.161 –> 00:28:02.941
And when we made that pivot, I wanna, it, it’s been such a blur.

00:28:02.941 –> 00:28:05.431
I’m gonna say that was about a year ago, December.

00:28:05.759 –> 00:28:07.409
And steel is up in the air now.

00:28:07.409 –> 00:28:07.499
Mm-hmm.

00:28:07.829 –> 00:28:17.502
So it, it just, I, I’m not sure where the time went, but, we had already started the process of putting K to something down at the high school site.

00:28:18.072 –> 00:28:22.512
And so that was probably closer to a year and a half, two years that we made that decision.

00:28:22.902 –> 00:28:28.690
But what was uncertain was what’s the right alignment with the facilities that we have?

00:28:28.690 –> 00:28:29.960
Should it be K-4?

00:28:30.160 –> 00:28:31.850
We talked about K-6.

00:28:32.260 –> 00:28:42.970
We even talked about, I think maybe making that like an intermediate school and putting the old elementary, the Carrie C. Hoffman building back to a pre-K, early K, you know, early learning to, you

00:28:42.970 –> 00:28:43.660
know, third,

00:28:43.660 –> 00:28:44.560
fourth, fifth grade.

00:28:44.800 –> 00:28:46.870
So everything was in the mix.

00:28:46.910 –> 00:28:52.940
The only thing I think that was really solid at that point is that the old high school was going to be the high school once again.

00:28:53.390 –> 00:28:59.051
So we pretty much got to the point of recognizing we needed new construction there.

00:28:59.261 –> 00:29:02.171
We looked at a complete demolition of the entire building.

00:29:02.201 –> 00:29:09.761
Ultimately, we landed on keeping about 10,000 square feet, which was the administration and the old kitchen cafeteria at the high school.

00:29:09.956 –> 00:29:15.716
But that’s kind of going to serve as central storage and flex space in the interim as the building comes online.

00:29:16.226 –> 00:29:26.956
And that’s where we were just trying to figure out construction that, first and foremost wasn’t gonna be subject to the same flooding issue if we had that same type of storm again.

00:29:26.986 –> 00:29:29.296
And that’s kind of a separate discussion.

00:29:29.296 –> 00:29:36.046
So that was the orientation of the building and what the floor levels were going to be relative to the flooding that had happened.

00:29:36.406 –> 00:29:47.639
The second thing was putting a building on the site that would lend itself to, in the future perhaps turning this back into a high school location if funds and, conditions led to that.

00:29:47.639 –> 00:29:54.884
We’re expanding it to a K-6 elementary and putting more structure on the site to expand that in the future.

00:29:54.884 –> 00:30:02.602
So it was a real exercise in trying to maximize the building footprint and preserve site for future expansion.

00:30:02.625 –> 00:30:08.198
Ultimately we were packing everything up in that kind of northeast corner of the site toward the administration.

00:30:08.588 –> 00:30:12.758
And then when we were presented with, we really need some type of a gymnasium space.

00:30:15.543 –> 00:30:21.203
And we’ve got the, cA gymnasium in the new design that is large enough for competition volleyball.

00:30:21.263 –> 00:30:21.353
Mm-hmm.

00:30:21.593 –> 00:30:25.373
You can play basketball, but it’s not really a regulation basketball court.

00:30:25.643 –> 00:30:30.113
And we really simplified the design where we were trying to wrap the building and turn the corner there.

00:30:30.653 –> 00:30:31.513
We built a rectangle.

00:30:32.123 –> 00:30:34.073
And so it was simple construction.

00:30:34.301 –> 00:30:50.944
We butted up on one side of the building and then what we did to address the flooding within the township ordinances and also just
looking at what was going to be good design the creek’s there and everybody wants to know, can you guarantee that it won’t flood again?

00:30:50.944 –> 00:30:53.104
Well, that’s a guarantee nobody can give.

00:30:53.524 –> 00:31:04.144
But what we could do was build flood resistant construction of the term flood proof was thrown around, and I don’t think that’s a fair term to apply to anything.

00:31:04.774 –> 00:31:08.304
But what we looked at township ordinance said if you’re

00:31:08.394 –> 00:31:15.864
built adjacent to a floodplain, and I, I don’t remember the exact phrase, but you need to be at least two feet above the floodplain elevation.

00:31:15.864 –> 00:31:23.489
So we took the worst point on the site during the flooding, which was the administration office that was the only one that didn’t flood.

00:31:23.489 –> 00:31:29.129
There was a little bit of infiltration at the one door, and that was just simply because the water had piled up and seeped in around it.

00:31:29.669 –> 00:31:42.629
So the new main floor of the building is two feet higher than that, and the breach point, the 10, talked about where the doors eventually caved in from the debris and so forth, we’re eight feet above that point.

00:31:43.259 –> 00:31:52.719
And so the entire educational program is eight feet above the breach point where the flooding occurred that took the buil, the old building out.

00:31:53.079 –> 00:31:54.819
And then we have a story above that.

00:31:55.269 –> 00:32:16.947
The areas that are below that, it’s complete solid wall on the side of the creek so that if that water comes down around there in the future, again, it can’t penetrate that side of the building, and if it
gets above that eight foot mark to air floor level, there’s a whole lot worse issues for the community downstream of that building that, not a worldwide flood, but certainly more than the flood of the century.

00:32:16.947 –> 00:32:24.747
It would be just something unprecedented, and I hate to use that word, but we’d have far worse things to worry about than the state of that school.

00:32:24.747 –> 00:32:29.067
There’d be lives and, and structures at risk, so we think we have.

00:32:29.452 –> 00:32:37.012
A sensible design solution that gives us confidence that if that same exact flood event occurred.

00:32:37.462 –> 00:32:39.982
I don’t think we have to worry about what getting into that building.

00:32:39.982 –> 00:32:47.392
Of course there was, uh, infrastructure added for storm water that then exist before we have some pumps in the basement of the building to overcome those things.

00:32:47.392 –> 00:32:50.452
So we’ve done some sensible things that you would do in any building.

00:32:50.452 –> 00:32:59.442
Maybe a little bit more belt and suspenders with this one, because of the proximity and being in the essentially the same location, but I think it’s a good solution.

00:32:59.742 –> 00:33:09.943
It was a simple construction, really nothing outlandish as far as all kinds of different building sections and elevations and functionally with the input of the district.

00:33:09.943 –> 00:33:20.983
I think we have something that works educationally, gives some, some flexibility in the future and can absorb a bubble moving through the student population for the K-3 uh, grade levels.

00:33:21.679 –> 00:33:31.399
Mark Barga: So I was working at an urban high school myself during the pandemic, and you know, that was a difficult, challenging, and complicated experience, but you know, there’s a lot to learn from that.

00:33:31.399 –> 00:33:31.729
Right?

00:33:31.729 –> 00:33:35.509
You learn a lot about learning and teaching and students and teachers.

00:33:35.959 –> 00:33:43.723
Tell me a little bit about your reflections, your takeaways, the things that you’ve acquired as far as knowledge about, we’ll start with your teachers.

00:33:43.723 –> 00:33:46.423
Tell me about the faculty of this remarkable little district here.

00:33:46.723 –> 00:33:52.063
Tim Matlack: So resilience, it doesn’t quite cover it as you’ve just alluded to.

00:33:52.123 –> 00:33:54.608
Like we had just come back from COVID.

00:33:54.668 –> 00:34:00.188
And so there was a ton of resilience built up over everything that happened with that disruption.

00:34:00.188 –> 00:34:04.298
And then what, a year, year and a half after coming back from COVID.

00:34:04.298 –> 00:34:04.388
Mm-hmm.

00:34:04.533 –> 00:34:05.618
Here comes a flood.

00:34:05.978 –> 00:34:22.381
So our faculty, I’ve worked in several districts, so I would say that one of the things that consistently happens when we do interviews is that people ask, all right, well, why do you like it here, to us as the interview panel.

00:34:22.771 –> 00:34:35.327
And the consistent answer in every panel that I’ve been on in the time that I’ve been with the district is that not just the community, the faculty, they see each other as family.

00:34:35.477 –> 00:34:44.957
It is not something that I’ve experienced in other places that I’ve been, yes, people have been cordial and they’re, you know, nice to each other, et cetera.

00:34:44.957 –> 00:34:51.857
But the group of people that we have working for us truly support one another at all times.

00:34:52.015 –> 00:34:55.975
And it’s one of the reasons that I knew what I was walking into when I came back.

00:34:56.005 –> 00:35:09.260
I knew that they were recovering from the flood because I still had relationships with people that worked here and were talking to me over the year between when the flood happened and when I came back about what’s going on and the struggles that they faced.

00:35:09.680 –> 00:35:21.620
I came back because I cared about the people that I worked with here, and because I wanted to be able to help and because I had the confidence coming into it, knowing that this is a resilient group of people who are going to rely on each other.

00:35:22.255 –> 00:35:38.065
Through everything that they’ve been through, and so as much time and effort and energy as Ken and his team had to put into moving resources
around, then on the back end, you have our staff who are doing everything they can do to make sure that kids have a welcome space when they walk.

00:35:38.075 –> 00:35:52.835
Into that classroom or walk into that building and during the shuffle there, like walking into a church that didn’t have air conditioning and, and wasn’t designed to be holding, you know, intermediate and high school age students for these classes.

00:35:52.835 –> 00:36:04.825
So it really and truly has always been that team effort, and I can’t give them enough credit for their resilience and the things that they did to try and minimize the impact on kids.

00:36:05.095 –> 00:36:12.145
Like there’s nothing we can do to totally spare them from, oh, you don’t have a building anymore, now you’re gonna be going to school here and here and here.

00:36:12.242 –> 00:36:15.942
But they did everything they could to minimize the impact that the kids felt.

00:36:16.212 –> 00:36:17.052
Mark Barga: That’s tremendous.

00:36:17.472 –> 00:36:18.732
Tell me about the students.

00:36:18.852 –> 00:36:23.449
How, how were the students affected and what have you learned about these young learners?

00:36:23.724 –> 00:36:31.557
Tim Matlack: So not having been here in that year where they were shuffled through, it’s not as easy for me to speak to that one.

00:36:31.557 –> 00:36:52.037
I will say that in last year as we opened, what is now again, the high school, uh, being able to see those students go from an environment where they were shuffling back
and forth between the church facility and the intermediate school, and they were only in each of those buildings for part of the day to like, now we have a building again.

00:36:52.037 –> 00:36:54.917
And it’s not just a building, it’s our building.

00:36:55.064 –> 00:37:13.464
There was always a sense, so I, because I taught and then was the AP, that seven to 12 building was always mishmash that you had the seventh and eighth graders
and then the high school students, and as an administrator and as a teacher, I can say it’s a difference between middle school kids and high school kids.

00:37:13.734 –> 00:37:14.934
And you always felt it.

00:37:14.934 –> 00:37:25.524
There was always that little bit of friction there that it’s not that the kids treated each other poorly, it’s just there’s a stark difference between the development of a middle school student and the development of a high school student.

00:37:25.824 –> 00:37:31.679
So I think for the ninth to 12th graders, walking into that building is like this is our building, this is our high school.

00:37:31.889 –> 00:37:36.209
You could see the pride and the joy that they had in, in doing that.

00:37:36.209 –> 00:37:47.319
And I was walking through the building with one of our board members whose child is a high school student, and she was recounting to me like her daughter coming home and talking about, oh my gosh, like the cafeteria.

00:37:47.319 –> 00:37:48.129
It’s amazing.

00:37:48.129 –> 00:37:50.529
The, like the spaces, they’re amazing.

00:37:51.274 –> 00:37:54.034
Getting to hear that and see that it’s, um, it’s awesome.

00:37:54.424 –> 00:38:02.674
I’d say that for our same idea, for our K to three students, looking forward to that day when they walk into that new building, same feeling.

00:38:02.734 –> 00:38:05.974
Um, but again, right now they’re doing well.

00:38:05.974 –> 00:38:06.814
They’re doing well.

00:38:06.814 –> 00:38:08.404
And a lot of them, they don’t know any different.

00:38:08.434 –> 00:38:12.044
Like this is, the modular units are just where I started, so they don’t.

00:38:12.524 –> 00:38:15.284
They haven’t seen what it could be and what it will be.

00:38:15.554 –> 00:38:21.284
But there again, staff have made those spaces welcoming and they’re working.

00:38:21.580 –> 00:38:22.180
Mark Barga: That’s awesome.

00:38:22.750 –> 00:38:24.640
Speaking of learning things about people.

00:38:24.836 –> 00:38:33.146
I understand that a few days ago, our friend Ken here, actually received a very well deserved recognition.

00:38:33.386 –> 00:38:36.251
Um, Tim, do you wanna tell us a little bit about what that was about?

00:38:36.371 –> 00:38:46.871
Tim Matlack: So, uh, last year we nominated Ken for the RISE award, and that award is a national one that is handled at the state level.

00:38:46.871 –> 00:38:54.225
Each state has nominees that they, they can, uh, put forward and so that state level, any nominees are considered and then chosen.

00:38:54.375 –> 00:39:08.802
So we nominated Ken for the work that he did between the flood and at that point, um, and we had support from our state Senator Judy Schwank and Representative Russ Knox’s office, that, in that application that we made.

00:39:09.102 –> 00:39:20.496
And, uh, lo and behold, Ken was the successful nominee for the state of Pennsylvania and we had the Secretary of Education come out, uh, on Tuesday to spend a little time with Ken.

00:39:20.496 –> 00:39:25.746
She was able to walk through the building and Ken was giving her the full history of the building and I was learning things.

00:39:25.746 –> 00:39:27.126
’cause there were things that he was saying.

00:39:27.126 –> 00:39:30.366
It was like, oh, I didn’t know that as, as we were walking through the building.

00:39:30.726 –> 00:39:38.466
Uh, and then she was able to give him that award with, uh, our students watching in the audience there and, and the auditorium.

00:39:38.466 –> 00:39:40.836
And, and he just loved the attention.

00:39:40.836 –> 00:39:43.356
I mean, it was like, it’s funny just sucking it up.

00:39:43.501 –> 00:39:47.021
Mark Barga: Ken, you don’t, you don’t get into this kind of work for recognition.

00:39:47.021 –> 00:39:47.711
We know that.

00:39:48.011 –> 00:39:54.518
What was it like for you to get recognized for your, your real dedication and uh, leadership on this?

00:39:54.783 –> 00:39:57.352
Ken Bonkoski: So, yeah, that’s a big thing for me.

00:39:57.430 –> 00:40:00.110
I do it because I love to do it and because I want to do it.

00:40:00.380 –> 00:40:00.940
I i’ll do it

00:40:00.950 –> 00:40:02.120
because I have to do it.

00:40:02.364 –> 00:40:06.054
It’s hard because I don’t like, I don’t feel like I need to have that.

00:40:06.584 –> 00:40:07.304
You know what I mean?

00:40:07.354 –> 00:40:09.514
I couldn’t do it without the support that I had.

00:40:09.724 –> 00:40:10.294
You know what I mean?

00:40:10.294 –> 00:40:14.164
And the resources that I brought to the table are kind of unique too.

00:40:14.494 –> 00:40:18.634
And my guys and my staff and all the staff for that matter too.

00:40:18.634 –> 00:40:27.304
I mean, when we’re talking about what we went through, we had even teachers, you know, we had, like you said, we had National Guard come and help us.

00:40:27.484 –> 00:40:34.549
We’ve had teachers from other districts come and help us, you know, during the process to get us moved out, you know, and stuff like that.

00:40:34.549 –> 00:40:38.029
It’s hard for me because I don’t look at life like that.

00:40:38.539 –> 00:40:41.059
I look at it like, you know, God gave me a gift.

00:40:41.059 –> 00:40:41.629
I use it.

00:40:41.629 –> 00:40:42.619
That’s what I do.

00:40:42.619 –> 00:40:43.369
I help people.

00:40:43.795 –> 00:40:54.625
Tim Matlack: And to Ken’s point is something, in all of this, there’s also, it’s not just the Antietam community, that’s the broader community that, uh, Exeter School District, which neighbors us.

00:40:54.651 –> 00:40:59.976
Throughout the process of the recovery have been right there alongside to be able to like support.

00:41:00.216 –> 00:41:05.933
We still use their tennis courts because our modular units are now sitting on what our tennis courts were.

00:41:05.933 –> 00:41:15.728
So they’ve allowed us to use their facilities to help continue some of our athletic programs, and they’ve always been there as somebody as a partner to say, what do you need?

00:41:15.728 –> 00:41:16.418
How can we help?

00:41:16.418 –> 00:41:21.938
So that sense of wider community is also something that I think has helped support us.

00:41:22.028 –> 00:41:37.304
And to the point about staff and the resilience there not connected to the flood, but this, at the beginning of this year, we had a situation where there was a, a mold issue in one of the modular units that we caught, like right before coming back into school.

00:41:37.304 –> 00:41:42.944
We had to delay the start of school a couple days for the K-3 group in order to, to address that.

00:41:42.944 –> 00:41:46.874
And that was another moment where like everybody swings into action.

00:41:46.874 –> 00:41:50.194
It’s not just like, oh, Ken, like you and your guys fix this out.

00:41:50.194 –> 00:42:00.244
We had teachers, we had the administrators working to replace ceiling tiles and try and clean up after like the mold remediation crew had been through.

00:42:00.244 –> 00:42:04.234
And it’s just, it’s an all hands on deck approach at all times.

00:42:04.602 –> 00:42:14.697
Mark Barga: And phil, you’ve been really a partner for the district for decades, and your office, for those who don’t know, is five minutes from the site we’re talking about here.

00:42:14.697 –> 00:42:16.257
So you’re rooted in the community.

00:42:16.887 –> 00:42:26.727
What do you hope that this new school really represents for not just, you know, the school district as an entity, but really the, the community here?

00:42:27.352 –> 00:42:37.162
Phil Leinbach: My feeling is upon its completion, the community, I certainly hope and should be able to look at that as a monument to the community.

00:42:37.236 –> 00:42:43.086
It’s gonna represent something very different than any other school buildings that I’ve completed.

00:42:43.596 –> 00:42:58.785
Everyone has its own, community persona, but I think it’s, it, it’s kind of the phoenix in, in this case because July 10th, you, you’re just kind of standing there with your hands in your pockets and not knowing what to do.

00:42:59.245 –> 00:43:05.790
And if I can just kind of hark back a little bit to Ken and the award, we work with a lot of facilities people.

00:43:06.024 –> 00:43:07.074
Everybody’s different.

00:43:07.074 –> 00:43:11.554
But I think one of Ken’s key, uh, characteristics is proaction.

00:43:12.894 –> 00:43:23.844
And in construction, in design and facilities, proaction is beyond necessary, but all too often we see reaction and yet we had to react to the flood.

00:43:23.994 –> 00:43:34.179
But it was wasn’t just a reaction to the flood, Ken, because of his background, was proactive and at times we go, whoa, Ken, let the contractors take care of this.

00:43:34.479 –> 00:43:36.459
And at other times, you know, we’re a resource.

00:43:36.469 –> 00:43:37.959
Ken to Phil, what would you do?

00:43:38.169 –> 00:43:39.699
And just a lot of back and forth.

00:43:39.699 –> 00:43:43.269
But it was never sitting and waiting for something to come to him.

00:43:43.479 –> 00:43:45.219
It was making things happen.

00:43:45.654 –> 00:43:50.064
And 99% of the time it was the right thing to do to keep things moving.

00:43:50.064 –> 00:43:53.394
So that was part of, of, what plays into this.

00:43:53.394 –> 00:44:07.884
And so back to the community and what this building means, it’s Ken, it’s all those that coalesced around him with the staff in the
building, the community volunteers came in from outside for flood cleanup and relief, not just at the building but in the neighborhood.

00:44:07.884 –> 00:44:11.874
And so I think, you know, while it’s gonna be Stony Creek Elementary school.

00:44:12.534 –> 00:44:35.393
It’s gonna be a reminder back to July of 2023 and say what was here and how, how this all came about all those little threads and stories might be forgotten, but for
years to come, it’s like that’s a school that replaced the flood and we pulled this off and we got her footing back under us, and we can move forward as a a district.

00:44:35.954 –> 00:44:39.644
Mark Barga: The three of you are an accidental design team, right?

00:44:39.644 –> 00:44:46.454
That came together here under duress, really, um, in very complicated circumstances.

00:44:47.204 –> 00:44:53.414
But here you are navigating all the things, funding, construction, flood concerns, architecture.

00:44:54.479 –> 00:44:56.429
Regulations, everything that goes into it.

00:44:56.429 –> 00:45:00.269
Faculty management, student management, program development, everything keeps going.

00:45:00.516 –> 00:45:08.886
So even though you, you didn’t have the long runway that many districts have, when they build new buildings or additions or do large renovations, you’re, you’re still here.

00:45:09.072 –> 00:45:15.432
What wisdom or what guidance or what words of, um, of advice might you offer to folks out there anywhere in this process?

00:45:15.672 –> 00:45:18.942
What have you guys taken away that you think is worth sharing?

00:45:19.857 –> 00:45:27.807
Tim Matlack: I think from my perspective, and this is a theme that I’ve, I see throughout the work that I do is the importance of trust.

00:45:27.925 –> 00:45:39.265
The point that was made earlier you know, Phil and AM have been working with the district for a long period of time, so you, you know each other, you know, the needs.

00:45:39.745 –> 00:45:50.815
Like I don’t have to talk to Phil about our budget or any, like, he knows, he already knows who we are, what we represent, and that makes the working together mesh.

00:45:50.984 –> 00:46:08.595
And I’ve seen, and again, having been in a couple other districts, I’ve seen construction project where there is not that level of trust and there is not that level of understanding and the tension that is created and it is not a pleasant thing to witness.

00:46:08.599 –> 00:46:26.899
So like from my perspective, I think that’s what I would say is the number one thing that is most important is that you have a trust where you have shared
understanding, shared values, those core beliefs about what it is that we’re trying to accomplish, and you are seeing the problem from the same perspectives.

00:46:27.289 –> 00:46:32.779
That is what allows you to work together to get through the hurdles to get past those obstacles.

00:46:32.898 –> 00:46:45.502
Ken Bonkoski: Similar to what Tim’s saying, it’s a matter of being able to, instead of being overwhelmed when you have such monumental things in front of you, it’s how to navigate what goes first logistically and all that stuff.

00:46:45.502 –> 00:46:50.992
And not overwhelm yourself, you know, and just being calm as much as you can.

00:46:51.322 –> 00:46:52.012
You know what I mean?

00:46:52.402 –> 00:46:56.152
You know, it’s funny ’cause they depict me in that as being calm.

00:46:56.242 –> 00:46:58.912
And my guys all laughed at that.

00:46:58.917 –> 00:47:01.769
They were, they were, they were telling my parents and my wife.

00:47:02.549 –> 00:47:04.169
That’s not Ken, you know what I mean?

00:47:04.169 –> 00:47:06.749
Because they see a different side of me sometimes, you know what I mean?

00:47:06.749 –> 00:47:17.889
Which these guys don’t always see, I’m very, sometimes I, I could be over aggressive, you know, sometimes, but I’ll always reflect on that and I’ll tell you if I was outta line.

00:47:18.099 –> 00:47:29.089
It’s just knowing, you know how to, to, to keep things going in a matter and owning that you’re wrong too, and being able to work past things as they come up, even if you don’t agree on things.

00:47:29.841 –> 00:47:36.021
Tim Matlack: and to that point though, what allows, from my perspective, what allows you to do that and what allows Phil to do that?

00:47:36.021 –> 00:47:40.011
Like if there is frustration, it’s that we do have the shared value and the shared vision.

00:47:40.011 –> 00:47:43.941
Like we’re doing this for a purpose for the kids and we’re trying to get to the same point.

00:47:43.941 –> 00:47:52.071
So if we get frustrated or you get frustrated with somebody and you snap, like, then it’s easy to come back to what is it that brings us together?

00:47:52.071 –> 00:47:53.301
And you know, we move

00:47:53.584 –> 00:48:00.743
Mark Barga: That’s the common thread through this whole thing is your guys’ orientation towards the students of this district, right?

00:48:00.743 –> 00:48:03.953
And the, and the family-like faculty culture of this district, right?

00:48:04.283 –> 00:48:07.823
Um, that is why you’re moving mountains to do the things that you’re doing.

00:48:08.213 –> 00:48:12.053
Phil, what I mean, you’ve seen every manner of school construction in your seat, right?

00:48:12.053 –> 00:48:18.432
So here you are in an a very, you know, abrupt and unusual and, and complex but accelerated process here.

00:48:18.432 –> 00:48:19.275
What would you share with folks?

00:48:20.105 –> 00:48:31.715
Phil Leinbach: Two things that I talk with our clients about, especially when we’re pursuing projects, and I think they both apply here, is one, you know, we, we’ve all heard the greatest ability is dependability.

00:48:32.315 –> 00:48:34.495
I think in design it’s flexibility.

00:48:35.440 –> 00:48:40.660
You just don’t know what’s coming around the corner sometimes, and you’ve gotta be ready to pivot.

00:48:40.990 –> 00:48:48.040
And for those of you that remember Gumby, that’s what you’ve gotta feel like some days you’re, you gotta bend but not break.

00:48:48.550 –> 00:49:03.740
Uh, the second thing, and, and Tim alluded to it, is that idea of trust and i’d encourage any administrator or school board member that listens to the podcast, don’t be so quick to throw your architect out the door or the baby out with the bathwater.

00:49:05.180 –> 00:49:06.980
Consider the relationship.

00:49:06.980 –> 00:49:10.495
Yes, there are some bad ones out there and you might need to change.

00:49:11.340 –> 00:49:20.370
The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, but the analogy that I’ve often used is your architects can be like you’re a family doctor for your buildings.

00:49:20.730 –> 00:49:29.670
There’s an inherent history and knowledge of what has happened of budgets, of previous boards, previous administrators, and so forth.

00:49:29.760 –> 00:49:34.470
And so don’t throw that body of knowledge out because you had one bad day.

00:49:34.860 –> 00:49:40.020
Um, we’re human, we make mistakes and to Ken’s point, you gotta be able to fess up own your mistakes.

00:49:40.020 –> 00:49:40.030
Mm-hmm.

00:49:40.285 –> 00:49:42.595
Find a way to correct them and you move forward.

00:49:42.595 –> 00:49:51.279
So I, I think it’s having that trust, it gets strained in situations like this, but let it bend.

00:49:51.459 –> 00:49:54.099
Don’t let it break you and be careful.

00:49:55.029 –> 00:49:58.509
Your architect has a lot of resources and.

00:49:59.434 –> 00:50:02.584
It, it’s a big decision to switch and we have gone through it.

00:50:02.614 –> 00:50:13.444
We’ve, we’ve been the one that, the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, and I had a call from a superintendent a couple years ago and was like, Phil, we’re begging you to take us back as your client.

00:50:13.504 –> 00:50:15.274
And they’re tough phone calls.

00:50:15.274 –> 00:50:26.424
It, it is gratifying, but you feel bad for the time that you were away from serving them the way that they had gotten used to you because you know, the experience wasn’t what they’d come to expect from you.

00:50:26.904 –> 00:50:32.274
And so that trust is important that you build over time and try to find a way to maintain it.

00:50:32.574 –> 00:50:36.264
And this is about the biggest test that you’re gonna get and mm-hmm.

00:50:36.504 –> 00:50:38.034
We’ve carried through, I think, quite well.

00:50:38.378 –> 00:50:42.548
Tim Matlack: That institutional knowledge is invaluable on our era.

00:50:42.548 –> 00:50:51.483
And so I’ve been with the district since 2007, but Phil’s been working with the district prior, so when we walk through it is now the high school.

00:50:51.783 –> 00:51:00.633
Phil’s able to say, oh, 2000 was 2002, 2004 like this happened, this happened, this hap, and that’s before Ken or I were with the district.

00:51:00.633 –> 00:51:04.653
So having that institutional understanding, it helps what we’re trying to do.

00:51:05.282 –> 00:51:14.432
Mark Barga: Well, thank you gentlemen for sharing this incredible story of Antietam School District and this remarkable tale of overcoming and opportunity.

00:51:14.912 –> 00:51:20.912
Um, and I wanna thank all of our listeners and stay tuned for more on this school district’s journey.