Board eyes referendum plan

$6 million needed for maintenance projects

By:Emily Craighead
   Come September, Hillsborough residents will be asked to vote on a $6 million referendum to fund maintenance projects at eight of the school district’s nine school buildings.


HHS parking under review

   One big-ticket project — expanding the Hillsborough High School parking lot — is not included in the $9.4 million total estimated cost of the facilities projects.

   Still under consideration by the facilities committee, the parking lot expansion is not eligible for matching state funds and would add $700,000 to the total cost.

   Currently there is not enough parking for all the students, let alone enough to accommodate the crowds that come to the high school for major events like football games or graduation, according to Facilities Committee Chairman Edward Plaskon.

   Superintendent Karen Lake said she did not know exactly how many students park off-site on a daily basis.

   There are 586 parking spots at the high school apportioned as follows: 245 for staff members, 297 for students with permits, 35 designated handicapped spots, and nine visitors’ spots.

   The proposal under consideration would add between 140 and 150 spots.

   The district’s architect, Nam Kim Park, drew up a plan placing between 85 and 100 spots between Amwell Road and the existing lot, 26 spots to the parking lot in front of the high school’s main entrance at the auditorium, 15 along Homestead Road near the practice football field and 35 on the far end of the practice football field.

   Board member Lou Possemato presented another idea passed on to him by a student a couple of years ago.

   "This young student said the solution to the parking problem is to build a deck," Mr. Possemato said, after asking the other board members not to laugh at the suggestion.

   Mr. Plaskon said his committee did briefly consider the idea, but abandoned it because a parking deck would cost several million dollars.

   The Board of Education will consider the parking lot expansion as it reviews the entire facilities referendum over the next month.

— Emily Craighead

   "This referendum is probably one of the few you will see that is not going to add seats or classrooms," Facilities Committee Chairman Edward Plaskon said, introducing the facility project referendum to the Board of Education on Monday. "Right now we have enough seats at the elementary, intermediate, middle school and high school levels for all students for the next several years."
   However, significant maintenance projects at the schools postponed due to failed budgets in 2002 and 2003, are becoming more urgent. Only Auten Road Intermediate School, the district’s newest school built in 1998, will not be included in the referendum.
   Proposed projects include items such as replacing windows, doors, flooring, bathrooms and water fountains, repaving parking lots, and replacing playground equipment at three elementary schools to comply with new state regulations.
   Many items have simply outlived their life spans, according to Mr. Plaskon.
   Woods Road Elementary School, built in 1967, still has its original exterior doors, bathrooms, and windows that are single-paned and drafty, according to Principal Scott Rocco.
   "These items will need to be done over the next several years," Mr. Plaskon said. "By doing this now we can take advantage of state funds set aside for facilities."
   The state will fund 40 percent of the cost of the projects, or $3.4 million of the $9.4 million total estimated cost.
   "(State) funds though are beginning to dwindle. Most people you talk to at the state say by the end of 2005 or beginning of 2006, there won’t be any more available," Mr. Plaskon said.
   If passed, the referendum would add between $49 and $68 to the school portion of property tax bills for the average homeowner with property assessed at $350,000. The range reflects rates dependent on whether the district opts for a 15-year or 10-year bonding.
   Not all the recommended projects will be eligible for matching state funds. Facilities projects must meet the state’s strict definition of replacing existing items.
   For example, installing tile flooring to replace carpets is not eligible for state funding.
   But, Mr. Plaskon said, "We would never replace carpet with carpet knowing what we know now." Carpeting is more difficult to clean and attracts molds.
   The other major projects ineligible for state funding are repaving parking lots, replacing Woodfern Elementary School’s rubber gym flooring with a hardwood floor, installing a fence to separate Woods Road School from Hillsborough Road, and installing a wireless Internet network at Hillsborough High School and Hillsborough Middle School.
   Some items on the principals’ wish lists will not be included in the referendum.
   "A number of principals suggested air conditioning," Mr. Plaskon said. "Even though it would be beneficial, we decided it would not be cost-effective."
   Students are not in school during the hottest months of the year, July and August.
   Mr. Rocco, whose school’s renovation projects carry by far the greatest price tag at $2,021,191, said he was pleased with the process through which projects were identified.
   The Facilities Committee, building principals, the director of facilities and the district’s architect Nam Kim Park compiled the list of projects for each school.
   "These are items that need to be addressed and if they weren’t they wouldn’t be on the list," he said.
   Items left off the list "are not priority items that need to be on a referendum," according to Mr. Rocco.
   Board discussion of the recommendations will continue at the Feb. 14 and 28 meetings. The Facilities Committee plans to file its request for state funding by the end of February, with the referendum taking place in September.
   The facilities work would take place during the summers of 2006 and 2007.