Thank you once again for allowing us the facilities planning committee to review the state of the district’s buildings. This includes the 6 schools and the North Bellmore Library, and to assist the Board in making recommendations on how best to proceed in restoring the North Bellmore Schools to the best possible condition to serve our students, while being cost conscious for the tax paying community.

Before we proceed with our recommendations, we would like the Board to know where the committee has been and how we have arrived at our determinations.

The committee was formed in July 2006 under the direction of the Superintendent and the Board of Education, with the charge of:

1. reviewing the 2005 Building condition survey and inspection report;

2. exploring the implications of the current building conditions related to short term (current 1-2 yrs) and long term (3 yrs to the future) facilities needs; and,

3. providing recommendations for consideration by the Board of Education relative to building conditions, facility needs, and recommended improvement/changes.

We are comprised of community members and parents representing every school as well as teachers, principals, Bard of Education members and administration from the district.

This diverse group has, for the most part, left their agendas at the door and worked together as partners to find solutions that can work best for the entire community of North Bellmore.

As a group, we have:

1. reviewed the building conditions report of our former architect H2M as well as a 5 year facilities plan for the individual schools needs and visually inspected every school. The committee reviewed the specific issues facing each of the buildings;

2. had one meeting, in October, with the district’s bond council to get an understanding of the district’s finances; and,

3. had a meeting with an energy performance company to discuss where the district might get monetary assistance for repairs to our buildings through energy savings by entering into an energy performance contract.

The facilities committee explored other types of aid that might ease the taxpayer burden for the cost of repairs to upgrades to our schools.

Additionally, we met with the individual PTAs, at their monthly meetings, to discuss the existence of the committee and what we were looking to accomplish.

As you know a new architect JAG was hired by the district and this firm has given us a different perspective on how best to remedy and resolve issues that are facing in the buildings. In the few meetings that we have had with this new firm, we have attempted to establish a broad understanding of how best to get a handle on what needs to be done.

We, the committee have reached a consensus that:

“The district needs to perform necessary repairs to all buildings, and make renovations to Newbridge Road School to move all learning spaces out of the basement.”

Though we are presenting a report this evening, the committee still has work to do, and with the Board’s permission we would like to continue this task and arrive at a workable solution for both the community of North Bellmore and the school district.

This additional time will allow the committee to thoroughly review all the new proposals from JAG and will include where the district can be in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years (as the charges of the committee stated). The first 2 years can include funding and repairs with money received through an EXCEL aid package that is being developed by the State of New York to assist all the school districts in the State including New York City Schools. We also see the “energy performance” package as administered through Johnson Controls as a way to upgrade our buildings through energy consumption savings, and the money saved being transferred into repairs by the company at no real additional taxpayer costs.

We have tried to address additional issues that are in our buildings such as space problems/ noise issues/ handicapped accessibility/ water infiltration/ and general maintenance. As we mentioned earlier, our new architect JAG has been working to assess where the districts needs are and how best to cope with them.

Together, we as parents, community members teachers, administrators and the architect are working to figure how to resolve issues at the least inconvenience to our taxpaying community, being both practical and cost efficient.

Ultimately, when you, the Board of Education review our recommendations, we hope that you will take into account the time we have invested, as volunteers, into this enormous project, and will come to us if you have questions.

In closing we would like to reiterate that our work with the new architect has just begun, and more time is necessary to review all the proposals so that we can help find the most fiscally sound and logical scenario for our entire community to embrace.

With everyone working together, the North Bellmore School district can move into the future.

Thank you.