Amityville School District residents will be asked to approve spending $2.5 million —the proceeds of the district’s settlement in the Park Avenue Memorial School lawsuit—to complete repairs at Northeast and Northwest, and replace intercom and PA systems in all schools. Since the money is already in the district’s capital budget, the expenditure will have no impact on the tax rate. “These are badly needed projects,” explained Amityville School Superintendent John Williams. “We have buildings that have water damage with tiles falling and in some cases teachers have had to construct partitions to avoid having water fall on to the students.”

In top photo, makeshift tarp covers part of a ceiling in a classroom at Northeast to hold back water from leaky roof. Williams and the school board will be making their case to residents at three public hearings: Feb. 22 at Northeast Elementary, 7:30 p.m.; March 1, Northwest Elementary, 7:30 p.m. and March 8, 2010, at Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School, 7:30 p.m. “We want to go directly to the public and take any questions and address any concerns people might have,” said the superintendent.

Above, area where roof and chimney meets is compromised. Williams said that replacement of the roofs at Northeast and Northwest are the most pressing and should take up the largest portion of the funds. After those repairs are made, any monies left over will be put toward the new intercom and PA systems and, perhaps, limited site work.

“We will not be upgrading offices,buying new furniture or spending money on anything like that,” said Williams. “Much of the work will not be visible to the public, but it will help repair and secure our buildings and provide a much safer and comfortable environment for our students and staff.” The money comes from a settlement on a lawsuit the district took out against its contractors during the renovations of the Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School ten years ago. Residents initially approved a $13.8 million bond to complete the work there, but after the project became bogged down in poor workmanship and other problems, voters approved another $7 million. Thatenabled the district to complete the work and pick up 52.5 percent of the cost in state funding, as well as purchase telephone systems, furniture and other items that had not originally been omitted from the architectural plans. Thedistrict also used some of it to defend itself against a $12 million lawsuit brought against it by its contractor, Christa Construction, the contract manager initially hired to monitor the project. The board fired Christa in 2001 for mismanaging the project. A m i t y v i l l e subsequently sued Christa and some of its contractors to recoup the money it lost and won the $2.5 million settlement last year. Williams said the district could have simply gone out and completed the work without going to the public for approval, but decided that was not the best course of action. “These are important, legitimate projects but we wanted to go to the public and have as much transparency as possible before moving forward,” said Williams. “Theboard and I thought that this was the best way to go.” The referendum will be held at the Amityville Memorial High School and Northeast Elementary School from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tues., March 16.