Until 9 Thursday night, Sag Harbor taxpayers will be able to vote on the Pierson Capital Improvement Project, a $40 million renovation of the district’s high school. If it passes, the bond will cost a homeowner with a house valued at $1 million an average of $7.37 a month for the next 30 years. The project modernizes the school facilities and upgrades several areas that have fallen into disrepair.
“I think we’re at a point — the school district is — that’s similar to what I ran into at the turn of the century,” Superintendent Jeff Nichols said at the last bond referendum forum on Jan. 14. “Back then, we didn’t have a functioning library or lunchroom. We didn’t have any science labs. The facility really needed upgrades.”
While it represents less than half of the project costs, the gymnasium is in one of the areas most desperately in need of improvement. At 65 years old, it has qualified for retirement. The ceiling is draped with torn fabric and doesn’t meet high school gym height requirements, often trapping volleyballs. The floor has dead spots causing balls to bounce unevenly during basketball games.
“The minimum recommended height for a high school gym ceiling is 25 feet, and a significant portion of this roof is five to eight feet below that,” said Michael J. Guido, the architect on the project, who has also worked for the East Hampton School District.
Not to mention, there’s no heating, ventilation, or air-conditioning system, so students sitting for exams in the gym in May or June often have to deal with temperatures in the 80s and 90s, a state violation.
Mr. Guido’s plans include building a new, larger, air-conditioned gymnasium behind the existing gym, while converting the existing space into three new areas: a fitness and weight room with community access, a robotics lab, and a music-instruction room.
The current weight room, affectionately called “the Hole,” is the size of a large storage closet and isn’t spacious enough for full-team workouts. The current robotics room is a cluttered former closet without windows in the basement. And the music program has three award-winning groups — band, chorus, and orchestra — but just two practice areas.
The new gymnasium building will have updated locker rooms and bathrooms. Right now, the locker rooms are in the basement and have exposed piping, low ceilings, and outdated lockers. The accompanying bathrooms are musty, with decades-old communal sinks and showers that are virtually unused.
The bond also includes enhancements like generators and refurbished bathrooms to enable the school to act as a Red Cross shelter. Pierson is the designated Red Cross emergency center for Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Amagansett, and Montauk.
If the bond passes, the district hopes to have shovels in the ground by July of 2027, waiting until school is out to begin necessary septic work that will likely create unpleasant odors. The next step, according to Mr. Nichols, would be building the new gym.
He is hopeful the Sag Harbor community will support the project. The two forums on the bond referendum drew modest attendance and few complaints, giving the impression that the bond would pass, but, the superintendent said, “You never know until the votes are in.”
Taxpayers who have been residents of the school district for at least 30 days are eligible to vote today from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Pierson High School gym. Absentee ballots must be completed, signed, and returned to the district clerk in the sealed envelope supplied by the district with the ballot, no later than 5 p.m.
The Star’s website will have updated results of the vote once the polls close and all ballots have been counted.