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the denver post B denverpost.com B thursday, january 26, 2012
PACHECO:
SCHOOLS: Neenan has agreed to pay for fixes
Mom said « she made “mistake” «
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FROM 1A
Detention Center. Kinzie-Graber, 36, of Sterling, cared for Caleb for about a month before her sister, who she said is a longtime methamphetamine addict, demanded him back. During the months that followed, Kinzie-Graber said, she called social services in Logan, Douglas and Otero counties, but she got little help in locating the boy. She said authorities told her they could not do welfare checks without an address, and she didn’t know her sister had lived in the trailer. The Colorado Department of Human Services will complete a child fatality review to investigate any rule violations or problems with established practices in Caleb’s case, said spokeswoman Liz McDonough. Investigations are done when a child’s death is the result of abuse or neglect and there had been contact with the county child welfare system during the two years before the child’s death. “This case met each of those criteria,” McDonough said. Because the investigation is ongoing and a Logan County judge issued a gag order in the case, the department cannot release details about Caleb’s case and could not confirm whether the department received calls from the boy's family, McDonough said. The department completed 17 investigations in 2009 and 14 investigations in 2010, along with starting 21 investigations in 2011. The number for 2011 could change as they are completed. The outcomes and locations of those investigations were not immediately available. Before 2011, an investigation was done if the child had contact with the system five years before his or her death. The time frame was shortened after officials decided the three extra years did not dramatically affect the investigation, McDonough said. On Sunday, an officer from the Denver Police Department encountered Kinzie in connection with a disturbance, according to an arrest affidavit. She appeared to be under the influence of meth when she told paramedics that Caleb was dead. Kinzie was placed on a mental-health hold at a Denver hospital. Joshua Briggs, who is being held in the Logan County Detention Center on unrelated charges, dated and lived with Kinzie in the trailer where authorities found Caleb. Authorities interviewed Briggs on Sunday after his family contacted the Logan County Sheriff’s Office. Briggs said he met with Kinzie at a Castle Rock hotel near the end of summer 2011, and she told him that she made a mistake and Caleb “was with God.” Earlier that year, he had helped Kinzie move out of the mobile home, and she had asked him to check the pipes under the mobile home. Underneath the home, he saw a pile of blankets that he said “gave him a weird feeling.” He also said he smelled a horrible odor. But he did not report any of the information to authorities until Sunday. Inside the bundle, authorities found skeletal remains consistent with those of a small child. The Logan County coroner’s office completed an autopsy Monday, but the cause of death is still under investigation. Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794 or jsteffen@denverpost.com
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just 25 mph. In all, schools designed and built by Neenan have received $150 million in money through BEST, which was created in 2008 to help school districts replace and repair worn-down buildings. “It’s very clear to me they are actively taking care of their customers and they’re going to continue to take care of the school districts,” said Ted Hughes, a Colorado Department of Education official who heads the BEST program. “They are stepping up and taking care of this.” Hughes has said he asked Neenan to arrange independent structural reviews on all of its BEST projects after a review found serious design defects that closed a non-BEST Neenan school in Meeker. Neenan agreed to arrange and pay for the additional reviews, which company representatives have emphasized they are not required to do. Neenan also has agreed to review non-BEST schools if requested. “The Neenan Co. is committed to making this right,” said Mike Daley, an architect with the Fort Collins-based firm, which has designed and constructed about 100 schools in Colorado. He said that some BEST projects were not carried out to the company’s standards, that Neenan operates with honesty and integrity, and the the company is taking responsibility because “it’s really the right thing to do.” Neenan has agreed to pay for fixes at the schools. Some repairs at the Neenan BEST schools are already complete, and the rest will be finished by August, Hughes said. One under-construction school requiring more work is the Mapleton Early CollegeMapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts building,
Neenan BEST schools Some of the issues that Neenan said were discovered during third-party reviews: B Akron — “Minor” issues on Pre K-12 building. “Minor” issues with a transportation building. B Alamosa — “Moderate” issues with columns at two elementary school buildings. B Buffalo — “Moderate” and “minor” issues with Merino High School, including lateral bracing for a wall.
At its meeting Wednesday, the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board heard from the Neenan Co. on third-party structural reviews taking place at schools across the state. Mike Daley, left, an architect with Fort Collins-based Neenan, said his company “is committed to making this right.” The board oversees the Building Excellent Schools Today program. Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post part of a construction project being paid for by a record $34 million BEST grant and $22 million local bond issue. Whei Wong, spokeswoman with the school district, said a third-party engineer found that a beam needs strengthening in the Skyview campus building. The review has yet to be completed. Wong said Neenan also agreed to the district’s request for a new engineer of record on the school, which will be “completely re-engineered.” The original engineer was Gary Howell, who also was responsible for the now-closed Meeker school. Neenan fired Howell in November, and a state regulatory board voted last month to suspend his engineering license. Howell has defended his work as sound. On Wednesday, Daley — the architect with Neenan — said Howell was not the only structural engineer working on BEST schools. He did not go into specifics. He also said Neenan is no
longer doing structural engineering in-house. In Alamosa, two elementary school buildings open since last fall have columns that need strengthening, Hughes said. The review said the buildings should not be occupied if it snows more than 12 inches. Snow will be removed from the roof until the repairs, scheduled to be complete by the weekend of Feb. 20, Hughes said. Neenan termed that structural issue “moderate.” Neenan also uses that term to describe problems with Sargent Junior-Senior High School near Monte Vista, which was questioned by Kevin Klein, head of the state Department of Homeland Security. “If we are taking kids out of school because the winds are blowing, I would consider that a serious problem,” Klein said. So far, that has not happened. The school did devise an evacuation plan after an outside en-
gineer found the building was unsafe to occupy if winds hit 25 mph. Repairs and an inspection are expected to be completed this week. The state Division of Fire Safety, which is part of Homeland Security and oversees school plan reviews and inspections, so far has found only minor issues in its own thirdparty structural reviews of Neenan and non-Neenan school building projects, Klein said. “We haven’t found anything that shows this is a widespread problem,” he said. “So far we haven’t found anything that suggests it is anything beyond the Neenan projects.” Mary Wickersham, chair of the board that oversees BEST grants, proposed Wednesday that Education Department staff conduct a “root-cause analysis” of what happened with the Neenan projects. Eric Gorski: 303-954-1971 or egorski@denverpost.com
B Mapleton — “Moderate” issue with beam that needs strengthening at Mapleton Early CollegeMapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts. B Miami-Yoder — “Moderate” issues involving bracing on Pre K-12 school. B Monte Vista — Strengthening connections between columns, foundation work and other repairs at high school. “Minor” issues including wall bracing at elementary school. B Sargent — “Moderate” issues at Sargent Elementary requiring snow removal from roof; “moderate” and “minor” issues with Sargent Junior-Senior High School. B Weldon Valley — “Minor” issues involving elementary, middle and high school buildings. Sources: Ted Hughes, Colorado Department of Education; Neenan Co.
dp Online: Read the full Neenan school report. »denverpost.com