West Hempstead schools need major work

West Hempstead School District administrators and Board of Education trustees held their monthly meeting last week, and discussed an upcoming bond referendum for up to $47 million in capital improvements throughout the school district.

The Dec. 16 meeting also gave attendees an opportunity to voice their frustration with a lack of board involvement in the negotiations over the contract with the district’s teachers, which expired 18 months ago, as well as what they describe as the less-than-desirable school lunches that are prepared for their children by the district’s food vendor, Aramark.

John O’Keefe, the assistant superintendent for business, who joined the district six months ago, presented the Building Better Schools Committee’s recommendations, by way of a PowerPoint presentation that focused on the plans for the extensive renovations. The BBSC is made up of 20 community members, 14 staff members, three board members and three advisers.

A copy of those recommendations, and the proposed cost, is available on the school district’s website, www.whufsd.com.

According to O’Keefe and Superintendent John Hogan, nearly all families with children in the district are in favor of the renovations. Among the highlights:

• The Chestnut Street School, which was built in 1908, needs $1.6 million in baseline improvements, including repairs to the foundation, exterior walls and chimney, and the replacement of the roof.

• For the Cornwell Avenue school, a minimum of $4 million in renovations are needed, including the installation of an elevator to make the building accessible to the disabled, roof replacement, and parking lot and sidewalk repaving, among other projects.

• At the George Washington School, some of the more critical capital-improvement needs include new windows, extensive masonry work and a new roof, lighting and electrical systems.

• For the middle school and high school, which sit on a much larger parcel of land, the necessary renovations are conservatively estimated to cost at $13 million. O’Keefe said that the science labs need extensive work, and that there is the potential for air conditioning in the auditorium.