HAMILTON: District facilities plan discussed

Officials estimate costs to exceed $200M

by James McEvoy, Managing Editor
HAMILTON — School officials and an architectural firm have announced that efforts to bring district facilities up to snuff will come with a $227 million price tag.
   Prior to a presentation on a district-wide facilities assessment at the Jan. 15 Hamilton Township Board of Education meeting, Superintendent James Parla said inclusion of engineering costs were the primary reason the figure jumped. District officials previously estimated facilities costs to be $134 million.
   ”It’s quite a bit of work that needs to be done, but this is only part of the whole issue that we have to deal with going forward,” Dr. Parla said. “It’s the elephant in the room: where’s the funding going to come from for this? You can’t raise this kind of money from capital reserves or from the taxpayer. You’re going to have to borrow the money.”
   According to a copy of the assessment, which is also available on the district website, the $227.6 million district-wide costs are broken down to $74.7 million, $39.3 million and $113.6 million for the high, middle and elementary school buildings, respectively.
   John Veisz, of the firm Fraytak Veisz Hopkins Duthie, which performed a previous assessment of district schools in May 2013, noted a majority of the repairs had to do with bringing buildings up to code and in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
   ”If we touch something it has to be brought up to code,” Mr. Veisz explained, noting the firm also examined capacity issues, efficiency and size of education spaces, among other metrics.
   During the presentation, specific deficiencies were identified in Kuser, Klockner, Mercerville, Greenwood, Yardville and Yardville Heights elementary schools.
   The primary work in these particular facilities would include inclusion of elevators, lifts and ADA-accessible restrooms on second floors of multiple floor buildings, according to Mr. Veisz.
   Other needed repairs would entail addressing other accessibility issues and adding a vestibule to Yardville Elementary.
   In responding to a question from Board member Richard Kanka, Mr. Veisz noted the cost estimates did not include any costs associated with asbestos abatement or lead remediation that may be necessary given the age of some of the district facilities.
   ”You know what happens when we start opening up schools that are 100 years old,” Board member Kanka said, noting previous remediation efforts for district projects have increased overall costs by between 30 and 35 percent. “You’re going to have problems underground.”
   Mr. Veisz noted the planning is at an early stage, but is still based on updated figures and cost estimates.
   ”We feel that these are accurate as they can be with the level of involvement,” he responded, adding that cost-savings could be realized by an economy scale if multiple projects went out to bid at once.
   Board member Kanka, noting the facilities plan could be over at least a five- or ten-year period, said costs could always escalate over time.
   He said further the district should “get the ball rolling” on the facility improvements due to the deteriorating conditions in some buildings.
   ”In five years the roofs didn’t get any newer, the boilers didn’t get any newer and the floors didn’t get any newer,” he said. “The longer we wait the more this stuff deteriorates and the more it’s going to cost this district to get this stuff fixed.”
   After the presentation, board members raised the possibility of constructing of new schools or facility consolidation in light of the increased facilities costs.
   Specifically, board member Jennifer Riddell asked what the costs would be of constructing a new school in comparison to a elementary school with a $10 million renovation price tag.
   Board member Anthony Celentano concurred, specifically addressing Greenwood Elementary School.
   ”We’re going put all this money into schools that are probably never ever going to meet the criteria that we expect over a long period of time,” he said, “Maybe we should think about combining these institutions, these schools and putting something together that is big enough to handle two communities, three communities.”
   To address roof issues in the district, Mr. Veisz said Hamilton had received over $2 million in state Department of Education grants to facilitate roof projects.
   At the board re-organization meeting earlier this month, at the behest of Dr. Parla, the board established a space and enrollment committee.
   Dr. Parla noted one of the issues the committee would have to grapple with would be examining costs analyses and determining whether it would be more cost effective to bring a school up to code or to pursue new construction and/or consolidation.
   He said further that the work would have to be done in phases once decisions are made regarding whether a given facility would be renovated or otherwise addressed.
   Dr. Parla opined alternatives could come before the board from the committee by the end of the school year.
   The meeting scheduled for Jan. 22 was cancelled due to inclement weather. As of press time it has not been rescheduled.