Roslyn Board of Education Trustees on Monday discussed amended proposals for $40 million in capital projects at the district’s high and middle schools during the first of two special meetings aimed at reaching a bond referendum budget.
Trustees heard a description of each project from Erik Kaeyer, the vice president and design principal of KG&D Architects who first introduced a $50 million capital plan for the district shortly after the start of the school year.
A discussion accompanied each description.
According to a revised document prioritizing each project released at the meeting, changes to the high school’s plan include the reduction of $200,000 from the $2.1 million new entrance and $305,165 with the elimination of a digital clock upgrade, while funding for site work at the middle school was reduced by nearly 50 percent and the digital clock and bleacher upgrades were also removed from the plan.
“The numbers [on the document] done in green was done with the understanding that some board members wanted to see what we could do to reduce that down to something closer to possibly a $40 million target,” Kaeyer said. “The line items that are boxed in red are ideas as to how you can get this number down from a little north of $50 million down closer to $40 million.”
Kaeyer’s revisions also included projected costs for air-conditioning to each school’s cafeteria, library, and second-floor classrooms, which trustees had previously requested be included on capital plan documents.
According to the capital plan document, Roslyn High School would require $2.28 million for air-conditioning. The document does not list air-conditioning as a line item for Roslyn Middle School.
Board President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy asked Kaeyer if there were any variables pertaining to the implementation of air-conditioning that the district could utilize in saving money through an energy-performance contract.
But Kaeyer and other board of education officials said that because the figures were only projected costs, a full design plan through which such variables would present themselves has not yet been made.
“There’s so many pieces to this puzzle that I think the long and short of it is that we need more data and we just don’t have it at this time,” Roslyn Superintendent of Schools Dan Brenner said.
The line item that garnered the most attention from the board was for a $2.3 million library media center that trustees said would only increase the quality of education if students and classes actually used it.
“I do not think we want to make the commitment and then find it’s not being utilized,” said Trustee Bruce Valauri.
School officials in attendance said the high school’s current library’s technologies are outdated and would need a renovation anyway.
“When you walk in, it literally looks like you’re walking into the 1950s,” Roslyn High School principal Scott Andrews said.
Student representative Jordan Fishbach said he has spoken with student council representatives from other grades about how often a modern library would be used in a school that has other, more nuanced study spaces throughout the building.
Fishbach said the consensus he received was that a library media center would be enticing, but would likely require a few years for students to feel comfortable using it without the supervision of their teachers.
Trustee David Dubner said he would support the new media center if librarians, teachers and students were taught how to use it.
Ben-Levy and Brenner each said the media center would benefit many future generations of Roslyn students, giving them a modern space to conduct modern research.
“The real value is going to be the ability for kids to come and utilize it in a real multimedia way that they can’t utilize the cafeteria,” Brenner said.
Trustees were also concerned about a $1 million renovation to the school’s lockers, which Fishbach said many students do not use anyway because they are too small and are too far away from their classes to utilize.
Kaeyer said the renovation entails a revamping of the hallway, flooring and lighting system, allowing for a widening of the lockers’ footprint from 12 to 15 inches in width.
KG&D Vice President Russell Davidson also gave a timeline of the bonding process, saying work would not start following a May referendum vote for two summers, and that the work likely would not finish for another three years after that.
Davidson added that a successful bond vote would not mean the district would bond the funds right away or in one lump sum. The bonding process would take place as part of plans between the district and its financial planners.
Trustee Adam Haber asked Davidson about the feasibility of a financial plan in which the community approves a capital plan on the condition that the board has the opportunity to vote on different phases of the spending, so that taxpayers would not bear a larger burden if the unstable economy falters.
Haber previously said he did not support a $50 million bond, instead suggesting the board split the capital plan into two, $25 million referendums requested years apart.
Brenner said the board could explore similar financing options, but said he would not want to finish a project at one school and then see a vote against doing a similar project at another.
During public comment, residents in attendance were most concerned about the safety implications of the proposed bus depot’s location adjacent to residential housing with a fueling station on the premises.
Trustees said the bus depot would not house buses, as had been previously planned, and reconfigured plans would limit the number of buses physically able to remain at the depot at one time.
The board has scheduled a second meeting on Nov. 5 to discuss proposed projects at its elementary schools, in addition to detailing its plans for a new off-campus bus depot to be used for fueling and repairs.
