ASD facilities committee makes final recommendations
School Board sets vote to accept State’s EXCEL funds for January 23rd
by Carolyn James

It was a cold night but an enthusiastic crowd gathered to officially light the Amityville Village Christmas Tree December 2. Photo by Joe Turner

The Amityville School District’s Facilities Committee, after touring each of the school buildings, determined that most of the capital improvement aid coming from the state should be used to make major repairs at the Amityville Memorial High School. In all, $1,837,000 of the $2.075 million expected from the state’s EXCEL funding package will go to replace the high school roof, repair the facade and masonry, replace and repair windows and waterproof, replace and do other repairs related to the school’s boilers, pipes, etc. A total of $77,000 will go to repair the facade and masonry at the Middle School, which also received approximately $1 million in repairs under the capital improvement project approved by voters last year. Those repairs were paid for through surplus funds.

The only thing standing in the way of the new repairs at the High School and Middle School is public approval. While the money is through a state aid grant that will have no impact on the local tax rate, voters must approve accepting it. The district has scheduled the vote for January 23. In the meantime, school officials said they would be reaching out to the community, explaining the proposal and responding to questions.

“We wanted to tour all of the facilities so that we knew exactly what needed to be done,” said Owen Brooks, a retired engineer who was on the committee. “We wanted to look at the buildings and see where the money would best be spent.”

Brooks said that while the other buildings needed some things, it was obvious to the committee members that the High Dchool, the district’s oldest building, should receive the lion’s share of the work.

“In actuality it is not a lot of money, but since it is almost free to the local taxpayer, we wanted to do as much with it as we could,” said William Morrell, a local attorney and member of the committee. “After listening to Lawrence Tullar, a roofing consultant, who was also on the committee, it became apparent to me that we could repair portions of the roof and secure the building.”

Morell said that was important since doing interior work without securing the roof would not be an efficient approach. “Our (the committee’s) hope is that the public understands that this work is being done with a grant from the state, but that we won’t get it unless they approve accepting it.”

Other members of the committee included Dennis James, school board trustee, Anthony Ciervo, facilities manager and community members,Kimberly Bethea, Roger Rowe, Thomas R. Conlon, Thomas Humphrey Sr., David Mikolaitis, Jacquelyn Allen, Essence McDonald, Edria Parks, and student Azalea Allen.

While it had been initially reported that the EXCEL figure was $2.4 million, the latest statistics show that it will be the $2.075 million figure said Enrique Catalan, assistant superintendent of finance and operations. In addition to that, the district will receive building aid on the work at a rate of 47 percent, or a total of almost $1 million over the next 8-to-ten years.

“The school board has not decided how that money will be spent,” said Catalan. “That will be a matter of future discussion.”

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