School Bd Struggles To Set Priorities

By Susan Coney

The Board of Education voted to table discussion of the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) prioritization that they have been promising to both the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council in order to make a decision on two pressing agenda items: the Hawley renovation project and the high school expansion.

With the lowest bid coming in for the Hawley HVAC project at $2.1 million over the original cost estimate and with no available construction cost estimates for the expansion project at the high school, school officials were unable to agree on priorities for the CIP.

After lengthy discussion among Superintendent Evan Pitkoff, school Business Director Ronald Bienkowski, Hawley Principal Jo-Ann Peters, and Brian Wetzel from Consulting Engineering Services, Inc (CES), board members concluded that they were not ready to decide the issue.

Superintendent Pitkoff felt that the high school expansion project could be moved back a year to the 2007-2008 school year, changing the occupancy date for the expanded high school to the fall of 2009. He suggested that some money could be put in to the 2006-2007 CIP to get a schematic design started for the project.

Dr Pitkoff stressed that moving the project back would give the timeline needed to have a successful outcome in the planning and approval process.

Board Chairman Elaine McClure asked Mr Bienkowski, the business director, “to walk us through how the process works in the expansion process for the high school.”

Mr Bienkowski explained that the State of Connecticut has changed how a district may apply for a grant commitment. He said that the following steps would have to occur: go out for a bid, accept a bid, get the town approval for the bid, and then apply to the state for a grant commitment.

He added, “Unless you have town funding in place ahead of time you can not apply for a grant commitment from the state. It would be a stretch to get approval by June.”

Board member Tom Gissen strongly urged the board to keep the high school expansion as its top priority. He expressed concern for the overcrowded conditions and the possibility that by putting off the project and exacerbating the overcrowding at the high school, which he said was at a critical, soon to be crisis, level.

Fellow member Andrew Buzzi agreed saying, “Even if we go full steam ahead, the high school expansion will still be three to four years for it to get done. The students are coming! We are going to have to deal with that.”

Mr Buzzi noted that the existing high school is built to serve 1,600 students and that the school’s enrollment is already 1,698.

“What is going to happen if we get another 100 students? How are you going to fit them?” he asked Dr Pitkoff.

The superintendent responded by saying that the enrollment numbers vary from year to year. He said that the district may need to look into some distasteful temporary solutions such as an extended schedule, portable classrooms, or larger class sizes.

Then the board switched gears by asking Hawley Principal Jo-Ann Peters and CES consultant Brian Wetzel their thoughts on the urgency of the Hawley renovation. Ms Peters stated that in the seven years she has been the principal at the school the temperature variations from classroom to classroom and noise pollution have always caused problems, making it difficult for the teachers to teach and the children to learn.

The principal said that it was not a conducive learning environment and that during the cold weather months she calls Dominick Posca, director of buildings and grounds, almost daily to come and tweak the heating system.

Mr Wetzel stated that the town is living on borrowed time with the ancient heating system that exists in certain portions of the school. He continued by saying that if the pipes burst then there is water damage.

Mr Bienkowski told the board, “We have a problem. The original budget was too low. We have $50,000 from a Hawley fund that could be used toward the renovation. We have a $27,000 energy rebate we will receive when the project is completed. We received four competitive bids. This is the market. We need to manage this. The state anticipates that school construction costs are going to rise ten percent in the next year.”

Board members appeared frustrated and pressed Mr Wetzel to go back to the bidders to inquire what the justification was for the $2.1 million increase tacked on to the original project estimate.

Mr Wetzel told the board that the building industry as a whole has been overrunning project estimates. He said that his company is trying to figure out why the numbers are so off of the original estimate. Mr Wetzel told school officials that he would have cost savings on Friday, October 21, after removing costs for roof compressors and the condenser portions of the air conditioning systems from the HVAC project.

Ms McClure asked fellow members toward the close of the meeting, “If Hawley is our number one project are we willing to deduct the overage on Hawley from the high school expansion? Take that $2.1 million off what we can use for the high school?”

The question remains unanswered.