School officials outline summer construction plans

Bill San Antonio

Classes may be out of session this summer, but work will still be getting done at each of the Roslyn School District’s five campuses.

Kevin Carpenter, the district’s facilities director, said Thursday that several renovation projects will be undertaken this summer to enhance the district’s infrastructure.

The work will be done using capital reserves approved during the 2013-14 budget vote and is not included in the projects to be paid for with money from the $41.3 million capital bond approved last month, Carpenter said.

The renovations include the removal of an abandoned rifle range in the basement of East Hills Elementary School and asbestos-laden pipes as well as site work to repave the Roslyn High School track, among several other electrical enhancements and general construction projects, he said.

The track, now nearly a decade old, would take a month to fix because of the severity of the depressions in the pavement that need fixing, Carpenter said. 

“We’ve gotten a lot of life out of this,” Carpenter said. “We’re going to make that track look brand new.”

Though the project would require a plastic covering to be placed over the track, trustees questioned if members of the Roslyn community would be prevented from using the track during construction. 

“If there’s a will, there’s a way,” board of education President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy said. “They will get onto that field.”

Carpenter said fire alarm systems at each of the school buildings will also be enhanced, as well as interior and exterior security cameras throughout the district.

General construction projects, he said, include the replacement of fencing throughout the district and of 360 classroom doors to improve emergency lockdown capabilities. 

In other developments:

• Prior to Carpenter’s presentation, the board held student and faculty recognition ceremonies to honor Roslyn High School senior Jordan Fishbach, the student delegate to the board of education, as well as the district’s 30 retirees.  

Fishbach, the Class of 2014’s president for the last two years and president of Roslyn High School’s Organization of Class Councils this year, was presented with a plaque and gift bag by members of the board. 

“We hope, as a collective group, that your remember these experiences and always be a dreamer, a leader and a doer,” Ben-Levy said. “You have the experience of sitting at a board table with distinguished professionals who see you as an equal. I want you to remember that and always demand that kind of treatment for yourself.”

The retirees – 11 teachers and 19 staff members – were each honored by their principals and supervisors at each of the schools.

“You think about incoming classes of students and even incoming classes of employees, but you never consider 30 employees retiring,” Roslyn Superintendent of Schools Dan Brenner said. “I hope you embrace it and see it as that next step in your life’s journey. You’ve all spent significant time, and we thank you and congratulations.”

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