- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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The group has been meeting about every two weeks to build a school capital project from the ground up. In earlier meetings the group determined what is important to committee members and the community, and ranked items in terms of their impact on the schools and the cost of implementing them. High impact/low cost items are likely to be included, low impact/high cost items probably won't make it into the group's final recommendation. But the high impact/high cost items need special attention, because they could tip the project over a threshold that voters will accept.
Items included the roofs on all three schools, boilers and heating/circulation equipment , security handling, sewerage, windows and new interior walls in the high school. The group looked at alternative where they existed as architects and engineers answered questions about their recommendations and how alternative approaches would impact the schools. For the most part the group agreed on their choices, opting to replace roofs and boilers that are at the end of their useful life. They chose to install video security systems rather than moving the school offices to the front entrances of the schools, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Facilites Group is made up of district residents, teachers, staff and administrators. The group has been deeply divided between those who generally support the project and those who have raised questions about the need, the costs and the process. This group has advocated taking more time to study the project, and has objected to starting the process before a long range plan was available. David Dubin declared he would stop voting in protest of the process in an e-mail he sent to the group on Wednesday.
David Dittman grilled Narburgh and his team on several issues, saying, "We're only getting one side of the picture, and that's the build side." Narburgh replied that State law restricts what estimates his firm is allowed to make. But both factions generally agreed on what action should be taken as they got into the nitty gritty. By meeting's end the group had whittled more than $9 million from the cost, leaving about $4 million worth of work to be done on just those 12 items. As these were the highest cost items being considered, the reduction was significant in the impact it will have on the project as a whole.
Meanwhile the Public Awareness Group has posted the results of a survey that they conducted earlier this month. Of 1000 surveys handed out, 258 people responded. When presented to the facilities group an argument broke out about the validity of the survey, but many agreed that the information contained in 50 pages of comments would be helpful, at least in an anecdotal sense. The results are available on the Capital Project Web page on the District Web site.
Once the Facilities Group has completed a proposal it will be presented to the Board of Education (BOE) late next month. The group will include the consensus recommendation as well as dissenting views on individual portions of the project. The BOE will then decide whether to accept the recommendations as-is, to amend, or reject them. At this point the BOE is hoping to bring the project to a vote in December.
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