School News

District 24 unveils buildings proposals

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Nearly 100 residents filled the gymnasium at the Brooklyn Avenue School on Jan. 27 to hear architects detail an $18.5 million price tag for proposed upgrades to District 24’s facilities.

The proposed figure prompted some incredulous responses from attendees, including Andre Divine, a father to two students at the Brooklyn Avenue School. “This past year, we lost educators, we lost different programs here … Dr. Comis is out there shoveling snow himself … What I would like to see — and I think construction is holding it up — is more money for our teachers; more money for our children.”

As the crowded gym’s temperature rose, attendees fanned themselves with copies of the meeting’s agenda as faculty members cracked exterior doors for ventilation. It was the first time a school board meeting was held at the school, as the district is rotating the meetings between its schools to encourage more attendance and participation by residents.

The district’s architectural firm, H2M, of Melville, provided an overview of the projected cost of accommodating a growing student population and outdated facilities.

Board members reiterated several times that the presentation was the first of a series that will take place as the district plans for its future, and that planning for building upgrades is separate from the schools’ annual budget process.

“We were talking about the state of the buildings and grounds, and I think annual school budget was on the minds of many of the people in the room,” said Superintendent Ed Fale. “So, what we tried to do was distinguish between the school budget … and a long-term plan in terms of addressing long-term buildings and space needs.”

Since 2000, state law requires that a building condition survey for all occupied school buildings be conducted at least every five years. The survey contains a 21-page list of 116 items that includes things like windows and doors, roofs, mechanical systems and fire alarms. Each component is rated, as is the overall status of each school building. Each of the schools in District 24 were deemed “satisfactory,” but architects from the firm H2M found several components of the buildings were not.

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