Bolandi plans for year delay in McKnight opening
By: Dick Brinster
HIGHTSTOWN The new Ethel McKnight Elementary School will not open in September as scheduled without what East Windsor Regional Schools Superintendent Ron Bolandi calls a "miracle."
Mr. Bolandi said at Monday’s school board meeting that the opening of the new school, adjacent to the older and smaller McKnight in the Twin Rivers section of East Windsor, might be delayed up to a year.
The reason, he explained later, is that the district and its bonding company have not hammered out all the details to finish construction, including a completion deadline.
Mr. Bolandi said he had hoped negotiations with Ohio Casualty would have resulted in the new building opening as scheduled. But he said he couldn’t wait any longer to make a decision.
"I’m not going to continue to jerk around with this and have to give people all kinds of different mixed messages about it," Mr. Bolandi said. "We’re simply going to lock it in and move forward."
"If by some miracle it’s finished in ’06, we’d love it," he added. "Basically, we’re looking to operate that building in September ’07."
If McKnight opens late, it would mark the second straight year a school in the district fails to open on time. Last September, sessions began two days late at the Perry L. Drew Elementary School because of construction delays.
The delay at McKnight will force Mr. Bolandi to once again transfer some McKnight pupils to other district facilities. The superintendent said he expects to have a firm plan for the transfers in place by April, after enrollment for the 2006-07 school year is known. Parents of affected pupils would be notified in May.
"We have to plan accordingly," he said at Monday’s meeting. "If something happens in the next two months, then we can change."
Mr. Bolandi drafted a letter to parents and residents explaining that he expects to move one or two kindergarten classes from the older McKnight building to another of the schools in the district. He said any new pupils in other grades possibly would be transferred to nearby Drew.
The letter said the new building is now enclosed and protected from the elements.
Delays in work at Drew and the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School led to the firing of general contractor TriRidge Construction and plans for a lawsuit. TriRidge, of Ridgewood, was hired to perform about $9.9 million worth of renovations to Kreps, $3.5 million in renovations to Drew and about $8 million to build the new McKnight.
In December, Ohio Casualty hired Forcon International to enclose McKnight and finish renovations at Drew and Kreps. The work at Kreps met the March deadline, but Drew is not expected to be finished until May because a steel contractor could not fabricate according to specs for the school’s gym and stage.
Mr. Bolandi said negotiations with Ohio Casualty are continuing, with the board’s construction attorney, handling the talks. Forcon would continue to run the project at McKnight, he added.
The superintendent said Monday that litigation could be funded by using $2.5 million of budget surplus and he hopes the district can recoup all of that money. McKnight could become part of the litigation over the issue of whether TriRidge worked as well as it could have to avoid delays after a March 2005 roof fire at the school, Mr. Bolandi said.
Managing Editor Vic Monaco contributed to this story.