Skip to main content

Surprised by Septic Costs

Thu, 08/22/2019 - 13:43
New septic tanks and pumps stand ready to be installed behind the Springs School.
Springs School District

As the Springs School progresses in its installation of a new septic system, crews doing the digging discovered impermeable soils that have to be excavated and replaced by different fill for the septic system to function properly.

The resulting costs will run Springs an additional sum of about $216,000, according to Jim Weydig, a senior associate with BBS Architects. The school had previously pegged the cost of the septic system at $1.5 million.

The impermeable soils “aren’t going to help the system the way it’s designed to function,” Mr. Weydig said.

The school board approved a budget transfer to cover the cost during an Aug. 12 special meeting, which was not re­corded by LTV as meetings typically are. The board then discussed the budget transfer publicly during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.

The money will cover pumping water and the existing soil out of the septic system’s leaching field, and will also cover the cost of bringing in new soil to surround it.

“This isn’t going to have an overall impact on the schedule,” Mr. Weydig told the school board.

Debra Winter, the district superintendent, said previous soil samples had indicated they were appropriate for leaching.

“This was unexpected,” she said in an email, “yet where the school is located, soil and water have both been a problem in the past. There are allowances within our capital project budget for things like this — like you would do in your own home, contingencies for unknowns.”

She said the district had recently submitted an application to East Hampton Town for a grant of more than $300,000 to help cover the costs of the new septic system as a whole.

In other Springs School Board news, a contract renewal with the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center for prekindergarten services was approved on Monday. The program runs three and a half hours per day and costs the district $4,500 per student, for up to 36 students, for a maximum of $162,000. The 2019-20 school year will be the second year Springs sends prekindergarten children to the center.

Ms. Winter said the district has 29 students enrolled at Eleanor Whitmore and an additional 29 registered for a three-hour prekindergarten program at the Springs School itself. Aside from the extra half-hour, the center also offers parents an option for day care before and after the regular prekindergarten day, to be paid for by parents and not the school district.

Running the concurrent programs “is about equity,” Ms. Winter said by phone on Tuesday. “We had . . . students that would not have been served this year [at the center], and that did not sit well with us.”

Eric Casale, the school’s principal, said prekindergarten programs help students succeed in later grades. “Kids come prepared to deal with the rigors of their K-to-8 academic careers,” he said Tuesday. “They come in knowing letters and sounds, simple mathematics, socialization, working together, cooperative learning, and taking turns.”

Mr. Casale said the administration is anticipating a total of 730 students when school starts in September, which is comparable to the total of 732 on the first day of school last year.­


Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.