Board Will Tackle Repairs at Springs School
The Springs School Board on Monday voted to spend just under $79,000 on seven different repairs to the school building.
Liz Mendelman, the president of the school board, likened the projects to what a homeowner might do every so often in his or her own house. “It’s just like owning a home,” she said. “You have to keep your maintenance up.”
The money for the repairs will come from a reserve fund specifically set up to handle these types of expenses. According to Thomas Primiano, the district’s business administrator and treasurer, Springs has $765,922 available in its repair reserve fund, but will only use a little over 10 percent of it this time around. The reserve came from leftover money at the end of each school year since the school board established the fund in the 2009-10 school year.
Mr. Primiano said the administration compiled cost estimates by either talking to contractors already vetted by the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services or by collecting price quotes on its own from qualified contractors.
“Where we can do it before school starts, we will. It’s already kind of late in the game,” he said, when asked about the projects’ timelines.
The costliest item addresses the rust stains and cracks on the outside of the building and includes repainting the school, at a price tag of about $26,934. Another big-ticket item is the replacement of all exterior doors, at a cost of about $24,544, which will ensure that they lock properly. The new doors will then also be compliant with Americans With Disabilities Act requirements.
A nonworking irrigation system will be fixed at a cost of about $7,970. Jeff Miller, a school board member who sits on the district’s buildings and grounds committee, said the fix will also help the school with the problems it is experiencing with its well. The entire system is between 52 and 54 years old, he said, “and it’s just so old that it’s done.”
Two surveillance cameras will be replaced at a cost of $4,200, and gutters will be repaired at a cost of $1,175.
Lockers will be resurfaced and repaired, though that project may not be completed before school starts. The fix is estimated at $8,894. “Many of the lockers are rusting and are dented,” Mr. Primiano said.
He also said there is also a plan to replace the shrubbery that was removed from the front of the school, which will not exceed $5,000, but the exact amount has not yet been determined because the district is still awaiting cost quotes from contractors. Students designed the landscaping plan for the front of the school toward the end of the 2014-15 school year.
The board’s resolution followed a brief public hearing during which members of the public initially questioned the district’s methods for obtaining cost estimates.
Carole Campolo, a resident who sits on the district’s facilities committee, suggested the district publish more advertisements seeking competitive pricing on various projects. She also suggested regular maintenance contracts with service providers might alleviate the need for last-minute repairs.
“I’m not the only one in the community who would like to see more transparency on this stuff,” she said. “The most competitive you can get . . . would be the best for the taxpayers.”