Well, well, what have we here? WEEK.com has this chipper report about the supposedly old, horrible, dilapidated, beyond-repair, poorly-lit, un-air-conditioned dungeon known as Blaine-Sumner Middle School.

This is one of those schools that just couldn’t be rehabilitated and had to close. It’s one of those schools that District 150 said would cost more to renovate than to shut down. It’s one of those schools that costs so much in operations and maintenance, that the only way the school could save money was to mothball it along with ten other buildings and build five new ones. This is one of those schools that has all that plaguing asbestos that would surely be loosed and kill everyone inside if air conditioning were to be introduced.

And yet…

This is the school that, according to WEEK, “crews spent a month cleaning and painting…for its new use.” This is the school about which “Special Education Assistant Director Bryan Pullen said, ‘Air was added to all the offices, all the rooms, so there was some actual costs, but I think in the long run it will probably save money.'” This is the school that is “[t]he newly named Blaine Sumner Complex [which] is now home to special Education Services.”

So Blaine-Sumner, which was one of the lowest scoring buildings on the district’s Master Facilities Plan, was rehabbed with a little paint and some A/C in about a month. And now it’s going to be home to “[e]ighty-five special education workers including psychologists, coordinators and Medicaid staff….”

Huh. Let’s review the district’s Master Facilities Plan again. Blaine-Sumner was one of six buildings (net) that was supposed to save (among other things) about $500,000 annually in operation and maintenance costs. I quote:

Presuming a net number of school closures at six and based on Operations and Maintenance savings of $500,000 per school closed, a savings of $3 million could be realized.

So, the question is, how do they make up the approximately $500,000 they were supposed to save by closing this building? How does this impact the master plan? Will they have to close another school now?

And, of course, the big question: If it’s this easy to rehabilitate these old buildings — and remember, according to the master plan, Blaine-Sumner was one of the worst-scoring on health/life/safety and operational tests — why do they need to close 11 of them and build 5 new ones in the first place? It looks to me like they’re not all that hard to fix up after all.