A Lawrenceville architectural firm will evaluate the district’s buildings and advise the school board on how best to meet its growing population.
By: Michael Arges
East Windsor Regional School District leaders have found an architecture firm to advise them as they consider expansion options for district schools.
At their meeting Monday school board members approved an agreement with Prisco and Edwards, a Lawrenceville firm with extensive experience planning and designing projects for public and private schools.
The firm will conduct an examination of existing school buildings to determine what combination of additions or new buildings will best provide additional space. By the 2005-2006 school year, the district’s enrollment will rise to 6,700, 1,033 more than the present 5,667 capacity, according to a preliminary report by The Helfgott Group demographers of Margate City.
Based on recommendations from The Helfgott Group, district administrators, board members and parents, district leaders are considering at least 10 different possible future configurations for the district. Some proposals call for the building of a new high school or junior high, for additions to all five existing schools with no new building, for more than one new building, or for new divisions of elementary schools, such as a K-2, 3-5 division or a K-4, 5-6 division.
The board approved an expenditure of up to $15,000 in fees to the firm for assisting the district in deciding what kind of buildings or additions to construct. The agreement calls for payments of $120 an hour to Scott V. Prisco, president of the firm and principal-in-charge for the project, and $85 per hour to project manager Joe Vast. Those fees represent a reduction from $145 per hour and $ 95 per hour respectively, according to an Aug. 22 letter from the firm to David Shafter, district business administrator and board secretary.
The $15,000 limit was imposed Monday after board member Ricardo Perez expressed concern that, without the limit, the contract would be like writing a "blank check" to the architect. Mr. Perez is an architect with the Schroeder-Perez architectural firm of East Windsor. The limit means that Mr. Shafter is authorized to spend up to $15,000 for architectural services and must go back to the board to justify any more funding.
Prisco and Edwards has specialized in school construction, including public school districts, parochial schools, private schools, colleges and universities.
"About 95 percent of our work is schools and educational facilities," said Deborah Dalrymple, community communications representative for the firm.
One of the firm’s recent projects was a construction program for the Margate City school district that comprised renovations, additions and new construction.
The firm has performed long-range facility planning for 14 or 15 school districts so far, Ms. Dalrymple said. Prisco and Edwards is 33 years old, and has gone under that name for five or six years, she added. They supervised roofing work for the East Windsor district under their previous name, Horowitz and Edwards, Mr. Shafter noted.
The firm is also supervising the reconfiguration of the Hightstown High School annex and the Perry L. Drew and Ethel McKnight schools. With the firm’s help, the district is adding and rearranging partitions to provide additional open classrooms. Because they have put together drawings of several district schools, they will be able to analyze the district’s situation faster, district officials said.
Other clients for a variety of projects have included school districts in Princeton, West Windsor-Plainsboro, Monroe Township, Upper Saddle River, South Plainfield School District, Bristol Township, the Diocese of Trenton, the Diocese of Metuchen, Catholic Elementary School in Ocean County and Newtown Friends School in Bucks County. The firm has branch offices in Nazareth, Pa., and Staten Island, N.Y.