Campus Upgrades Keep Coming

After a busy summer, the facilities team rolls into the fall.
Director of Facilities Ed Bennett and his team had a busy summer carrying out sustainability initiatives, implementing campus upgrades, and conducting maintenance work on campus. And they show no signs of slowing down this fall. 

While the majority of students and faculty spend their summer months catching up on some rest and relaxation, the Maintenance Department kicks it into high gear. With campus mostly deserted, the maintenance staff sets to work on those projects large and small that took the back seat while school was in full swing. This year's summer projects included:
  • Renovation of the girls' locker room.
  • Faculty housing projects and renovations (two kitchens, two master baths, four decks, and four residences received new "efficient" windows).
  • Two additional rooms and a permanent loft constructed in Lower School to accommodate the larger freshman class.
  • Renovation of the second story bathroom in Middle School.
  • One third of the barns re-roofed.
  • New water line installed to the Gymkhana Field.
  • Commons tables and chairs replaced with reclaimed wood furniture and outdoor furniture replaced throughout campus.  
  • Dorm laundry systems replaced to greywater systems (providing an additional 550,000 gallons of water for irrigation).
  • 5,000-gallon rainwater collection system installed on one of our stables. (Fortuitously, within hours of installation Thacher received an unusual 2-inch summer rain! The captured water was then used to water some stressed trees.)
  • All public restrooms equipped with low-flow fixtures or dual-flush toilets.
  • Started the process of converting a 10-acre avocado orchard into a productive horse pasture.
On the hard work of the maintenance crew this summer, Mr. Bennett commented, "the Thacher physical plant—103 buildings, 42 which are residences, comprising 360,000 square feet of space—presents a challenge every summer to complete much needed deferred maintenance, repairs, and improvements. To have Mr. Mulligan's first words to me be 'the campus looks great,' was a testament to the hard work of the entire facilities team!"

With the summer work accomplished, attention turns to these projects:
  • Renovation of the Bard baseball field has already begun and will be ready for the 2016 season.
  • Installation of the new 2,898-panel photo-voltaic solar array in Carpenter's Orchard will commence this month.
  • A new sunshade structure will be built over the Centenniel Amphitheater.
  • Renovation of the Sespe Dormitory will commence after Reunion Weekend 2016.
  • Under the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) Thacher has reserved the funding for two-thirds of the cost of a battery that will be charged by the solar PV system and provide the ability to operate the dining hall in emergency situations or for load curtailment.
  • Upgrades to our fleet of campus vehicles will include two pluggable hybrids. These changes are expected to elevate our our gas mileage from 13.9 to 32 mpg, translating to at least a 50 percent reduction in our green house gas contribution.  
Head of School Michael Mulligan had some thoughts to share on the vast improvements around campus. "Ed Bennett and his staff have been whirling dervishes of accomplishment. We've all read about all the sustainability work they have undertaken and, indeed, construction on the solar field begins this week. But I am also particularly happy that Ed and the crew are working to get rain catchment systems for all of the barn roofs. We could capture enough water in a three inch rain storm to serve the stables and horses for an entire academic year. This will be huge. And this is not even to mention all of the 'little' projects that they continue to work on around campus—kitchens, roofs, and drought resistant landscaping, for example. And for you baseball fans, the crew and some professionals are building, as I write, a new baseball field. Ball players and fans of all generations are going to love this. We will have a back stop that will actually keep some of the balls from flying backwards into the pucker-brush. We will have dugouts and shade; we will have a smooth infield (whoops, there goes any excuses for not snagging the hopping grounders). Baseball, Thacher's oldest sport, is getting an long overdue upgrade. Mr. Thacher would be happy. And he would also be happy to see that we are using so much less water than in recent years. We will not hand water our orchards like he did, of course, but drip irrigation will do the trick. My great thanks to our many generous supporters, and to Ed Bennett and the devoted and hard-working plant team."
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A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
5025 Thacher Road
Ojai, California, 93023
Tel: 805-646-4377 Fax: 805-646-9490 Email: info@thacher.org 
Thacher is committed to maintaining an atmosphere of respect and dignity free from harassment. Our school does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, or any other characteristics protected by state or federal law in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, tuition assistance, and athletic and other school-administered programs, or any other basis in law.