Herricks school officials said Thursday that estimates of the capital repairs needed at Herricks Middle School and the Denton Avenue School have been placed at $3.5 million.
Jim Brown, the director of facilities, said the repairs include an estimated $2.3 million for renovations to the middle school roof, air conditioning in the nurses and special education offices, $700,000 to replace the two middle school boilers, and $191,235 for work to the Denton Avenue roof.
“It’s the basics, but it’s the most important part of a building. Without a roof, without a boiler, we don’t have a school,” Brown said during a presentation at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Herricks Board of Education President Jim Gounaris said the district administration is putting together the details of the work needed in preparation of a proposed referendum that the board will vote on. Gounaris said trustees planned to put the project to a vote in a referendum that coincides with the school district elections next spring.
Helen Costigan, the Herricks assistant superintendent for business, said district administrators were focusing on work that was essential to the schools.
“We looked at the needs of the district and we were able to look at the most critical needs,” Costigan said.
Costigan said taxpayers would see no change in their school taxes if the project was approved since the district will be finishing payments on an existing $3 million bond at the end of June 2015.
“We’ve done this in the past when a bond was paid, we were able to go out and borrow so it doesn’t increase the budget line, it really just replaces that line. That’s how we’ve been maintaining our buildings since I’ve been here over the past 10 years,” Costigan said.
Costigan said architect’s fees and incidental costs would also be included in the bond.
Costigan asked Brown during his presentation to the board if there were any other projects he wanted to do if bids on the work came in below what they had been budgeted for.
Brown proposed a $180,000 project to add an A/C unit for the middle school cafeteria. He said that the project could be tied in with the overhaul of the middle school roof.
“If we did it during our construction, the cost of doing it would be a lot less, and we’d probably get a better rate of return on what we’re looking to install,” Brown said.
“The $180,000 above and beyond, to do that extra air conditioning work, that’s a staggering number,” Gounaris said. “But I also have to think that it’s probably money better spent now, because if there’s going to be a meeting in the middle school I’m sure it’s going to be much cheaper to run the air conditioner in the smaller cafeteria than that tremendous auditorium.”
After Brown’s presentation, Herricks Director of Technology David Pickman said the district’s internet network was in need of an upgrade, which he estimated would cost $176,402. Pickman said the district’s network consists of many old and new switches that move at different speeds and cause traffic jams.
“Essentially, our network infrastructure is basically a series of bottlenecks, he said. “I’m looking for help to upgrade our switching system to the point that we can depend on it.”
Pickman said he also wants to upgrade the Barricuda Internet filtering system the district currently uses.
When the district purchased the system in 2008 it was capable of handling three times the amount of devices in the district and 1,500 simultaneous connections, Pickman said,
He said that since 2007, the district has nearly doubled the amount of connected devices on the network, which includes computers, laptops and iPads.
“I was looking at the logs yesterday and around 1:45 p.m. we maxed out at 8,400 connections,” Pickman said.
He said that he has worked with the Barricuda company and tweaked the system so that it can handle a heavier workload, but he’s concerned about it breaking down.
“I’d like your support in going forward to a place where I can feel comfortable our infrastructure can support what we want to deliver to our kids,” Pickman said.
“The ad hoc process we have used to allow things to run into the ground may work for trucks because we can survive for a week or two without a truck. We cannot survive by running this into the ground,” Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth said.
Gounaris said the projects could also include repaving parking areas at the district’s three elementary schools.
In other news:
• The district will be hosting parent workshops on the Compass Learning program in the coming weeks. Compass Learning delivers voluntary mini-lessons and activities to students based on their own work level on topics aligned with their NWEA proficiency. Workshops will be held on Nov. 18 at Center Street School from 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. Two workshops will also be held on Nov. 25 at the middle school from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. to 8 p.m.
