The East Hampton School District finished the first day of classes with its September board meeting closing out the session with a hot topic — the battery energy storage system, or BESS, on Cove Hollow Road.
The board recently learned that two of its schools — the high school and the John M. Marshall Elementary School — fall within the one-mile evacuation zone in the event of an emergency at the storage system. East Hampton Middle School is just yards outside the zone. Given the facility’s fire in 2023 and current concerns about whether the fire resulted in the release of PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” that may have contaminated Suffolk County Water Authority wells, the district wants more information.
“BESS had come across my desk a few years ago when the fire had happened. I was potentially going to have to evacuate the buildings,” said Adam Fine, the superintendent. “It obviously caught my attention again. It’s been in the newspaper every week. I brought it to the board to discuss, and now they’re doing their due diligence and trying to get information about what it means for the schools and evacuation, and possible hazards for the schools. They’re doing more fact-finding than anything else.”
Questions about the storage center will be the focus of a regularly scheduled health and safety committee meeting Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Gerry Turza, the East Hampton Village fire and emergency medical services administrator, who was at the scene of the fire, will attend.
“Our first concern is student safety, and we just want to get a little bit better explanation of exactly what is there,” said J.P. Foster, the president of the school board. “What would be expected of us if they say, ‘Hey, listen, you do have to evacuate’? How much time do we have? Can we do it in a timely fashion to make sure we have everything in place to do so? We do have evacuation plans in place, but this is a little different. We want to make sure we have enough information to act accordingly and keep the kids safe.”
The committee meeting is not open to the public, but Mr. Foster said the board will provide an update at its next meeting, on Sept. 22.
Additionally, the board approved a contract for Keith Graham to become the new school lunch manager, effective Jan. 1. Mr. Graham will transition the school to its own cafeteria program. He will be paid $90,000 to develop the new program from January through June 2027. In July, his annual salary will increase to $185,000, with $5,000 increases through 2031. Whitsons Culinary Group is now managing the district’s cafeteria program and will continue to do so until the end of the school year.
The superintendent said the district has wanted to make the change for some time.
“The time presented itself now — the opportunity to run our own cafeteria program and have our own nutritional program in place. We had somebody who was available and who was willing to come here with experience. And that’s the big piece,” said Mr. Fine.