Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Academy grapples with flaw in library

bayshore gardens A fire inspector rains on the parade years after completion.

By EMILY NIPPS Times Staff Writer
Published November 2, 2007

Built in 2001, it has a huge arched window that overlooks the playground, extensive online database programs, and an enormous library of books and magazines.

So imagine the private K-12 school's surprise when a city fire inspector looked at the media center last year - five years after it was built - and said it was flawed. The case has been ongoing, and the academy was still trying to figure out a solution this week.

The school wasn't alone. At least three others received citations from a new fire inspector, whose interpretation of a fire code prompted the schools to address their lack of an independent exit for children below second grade.

"After six years of doing the right thing, we're now being told we're doing it wrong," said former City Council member Bob Buckhorn, who is on the academy's board of trustees and has a kindergartener there.

"Anybody else who has added a library in recent years and relied on the city's interpretation of the proper code is sort of caught in a bureaucratic quagmire," he said.

The school's media center has two exits, but, according to state fire codes, needs an additional exit so kindergarteners and first-graders don't have to compete with older children in an emergency.

In early October, the Tampa Fire Marshal's Office sent a letter to the academy requesting "a plan of action to mitigate" the code violation within 60 days.

But constructing a new exit could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and would ruin a portion of the center, the school contends. On Oct. 17, it filed an administrative appeal with the city, arguing that the academy followed the rules and fire codes when it built the center, so it should be allowed to stay as is.

The school filed the appeal mainly as a precaution, in case it needs to pursue legal action later.

Buckhorn said the problem came about when a new inspector came to the school and had a different interpretation of a code pertaining to school fire exits. The city fire marshal checked with the State Fire Marshal's Office, which confirmed that the school does, in fact, need an additional exit.

Lithia Springs Elementary in Valrico, Trinity School for Children in central Tampa and downtown's Rampello School were also cited in the past year for having too few exits, said Hillsborough school district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe. (Rampello School was later found to have an adequate number of exits.)

The school district hopes to settle the cases "administratively," Cobbe said.

Rather than alter buildings, the schools are complying by designating one of the existing exits for the youngest children and making sure the older kids aren't in the areas at the same time as the younger kids.

"It's an issue that nobody saw (when the school was built) in 1992," Lithia Springs principal MaryAnn Keene said of the school's media center and art room, which were cited for inadequate exits. "But we're going to work through it."

Academy of the Holy Names also hopes to develop a plan to keep the school safe without spending more money on construction.

"We are parents, first and foremost, and safety is of the upmost importance to us," Buckhorn said. "We're going to do what we have to do, so we're caught in a tough situation."

Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or 226-3431.

[Last modified November 1, 2007, 06:36:22]