West School receives $3 million from FEMA

West School — one of the schools that was hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy — received a $3 million reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week, a large chunk of funding that school officials said would help cover the cost of repairs, which are expected to be completed by September.

“There is no better federal investment than one that helps educate students in a safe and learning-friendly environment,” Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement announcing the funding on July 31.

School officials said that this is the first funding FEMA has doled out for the Sandy-damaged building, but it is not all they expect to receive from the agency.

West School’s first floor was flooded by three to four feet of water, and the building had to be gutted, and all systems on that floor needed to be ripped out and replaced. The entire first floor was rebuilt, and workers have restored bathrooms and plumbing fixtures; replaced the gym floor, bleachers and wall padding; installed new mechanical systems and built a new second-floor boiler room, as a flood-mitigation effort.

At an April Board of Education meeting, a representative of the district’s construction management company, CSArch, said that repairs to the building would cost an estimated $7.2 million, and would take until September to complete. The cost to restore the entire district was estimated at $29.3 million, but did not include the costs of the initial storm cleanup or the replacement of the condemned administration building.

The district’s chief operating officer, Michael DeVito, said that the cost of West School’s repairs has since dropped to approximately $6 million. “We’re happy and very pleased to get some of the money,” DeVito said. “And we’re still meeting with both FEMA and our insurance companies to determine how to allocate some of the insurance proceeds that we’re scheduled to receive, and then what FEMA’s going to pick up as the balance. It’s a rolling process.”