SSMS track to be repaired

At a special meeting Monday afternoon, the Rockville Centre Board of Education approved spending to finance repairs to the track at South Side Middle School.

The track repair is the first major project to come out of the district’s $45.9 million bond, which was approved in March. The track work will cost nearly $134,500 and will be handled by KJB Industries, Inc.

“We’re going to renovate the entire track,” said Dr. William Johnson, the district superintendent. “We’re going to take off the top layer and they’re going to do repairs to the underlying base.”

The meeting in which the board approved the spending was called for Monday even though the board had a meeting scheduled for Wednesday. The reason, Johnson said, was so that work could begin this week.

“[Waiting until Wednesday] would postpone the start time until some time next week,” Johnson said. “So we want to get them here as quickly as possible.”

According to Johnson, the district hopes to have the work completed by Sept. 9, a few days after school begins on Sept. 3. Johnson said that he’s not worried about the track not being open for the first week of school.

“We can figure out how to get the teams to practice elsewhere on the property,” he said. “At least temporarily.”