What does the Facilities Committee do?
The purpose of the Facilities Planning Committee is to look at the condition of the North Bellmore School District’s facilities —the buildings, their sites and surrounding grounds. With the aid of the district’s architect, the committee is in the process of evaluating the individual buildings to see what, if any, capital improvements, structural replacements, upgrades or repairs need to be made in the short and long term.
The district owns the following buildings:
- John G. Dinkelmeyer School (built 1948; 46,900 sq. ft.)
- Jacob Gunther School (built 1957; 42,500 sq. ft.)
- Martin Avenue School (built 1948; 2000 addition; 59,700 sq. ft.)
- Newbridge Road School (built 1924; 1963 addition; 45,300 sq. ft.)
- Park Avenue School (built 1957; 42.500 sq. ft.)
- Saw Mill Road School (built 1953: 65,600 sq. ft.)
- The North Bellmore Public Library (built 1962; 14,300 sq. ft.)
- 1602 Bellmore Ave.
Why and how was the Facilities Committee formed?
Superintendent of Schools Dominic Mucci, together with Assistant to the Superintendent/Business Official Toni Ann Cincotta and district Facilities Director Chris Milano, called for the committee to be formed last spring when the district’s architect at the time, H2M Group, released the results of a survey of the district’s facilities, as required by the New York State Education Department.
That survey, which was presented at the Board of Education meeting last June, found that the school district’s buildings were in need of significant repairs and upgrades encompassing, in some cases, roofing, heating system, and electrical issues, among other things.
Mr. Mucci invited parents and community members at large to form a district-wide Facilities Planning Committee:
- to evaluate the survey’s findings;
- to independently review building conditions;
- to prioritize possible repairs, upgrades and improvements;
- to assess various options for addressing the situation, including student population needs and budget and funding alternatives; and,
- to make short- and long-term recommendations to the Board of Education about how best to deal with the District’s facilities needs.
Who are we?
Those of us serving on the committee are volunteers. We are parents and other civic-minded, independent community members, as well as district administrators and educators who bring a range of expertise and perspectives to this task. The 25-member committee includes parents from all six schools, members of the community at large, teachers and administrators.
What are we doing?
The Facilities Planning Committee was established in the late spring, met briefly over the summer, and has met twice a month ever since.
During our meetings, we have been:
- Reviewing the original facilities study and the current architect’s reports to determine each building’s needs and to identify district priorities.
- Gathering and discussing information, including consideration of demographics, student enrollment, busing, class size, and other factors that may affect building capacity and future needs.
- Touring all of the buildings to examine first-hand their conditions.
- Participating in workshops on specific topics, such as:
- the school construction/improvement procedures
- the New York State Education Department approval process
- energy performance contracts
- bond issues and other financing alternatives
Facilities Director Chris Milano established a VIEW (Visual Inspection Environmental Walkthrough) subcommittee which tours the building that is the oldest and in greatest disrepair, Newbridge Road School, once a month to inspect for health and safety issues.
Also, updates about the Facilities Planning Committee are presented to the public each month at Board of Education meetings and included in the district’s newsletter. Updates have also been reported in local newspapers.
Additionally, representatives of the committee made presentations about the Facilities Planning Committee at a PTA meeting at each school recently in an effort to communicate with the community and elicit questions. Once the committee makes its recommendations and the Board makes final decisions about them, the committee intends to revisit the PTAs.
What have we recommended to the Board of Education?
Based on various types of data and information we have reviewed so far, we have made the following recommendations to the Board of Education:
- In light of demographic studies and bus routing as well as other expense considerations, our consensus was to recommend that the Board not consider the Princeton plan for the district. That model would have called for reorganization of the students by grade levels rather than by location. The Board agreed to this recommendation in late November.
- We also recommended that the Board pursue Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for energy performance contracts as a means of funding energy-efficient improvements, such as replacement lighting or heating systems, for example. These contracts would mean that these types of upgrades would be paid for with the dollars saved in energy bills —improvements made without any additional cost to the taxpayer. The Board agreed to this recommendation in late November, and has requested RFPs from a few companies. Their submissions are due at the beginning of March.
What are our next steps?
The committee continues to meet and discuss the current architect’s building condition study and review data and other information as we move toward issuing our findings and formulating our recommendations.
We plan to make our recommendations to the Board by the end of March regarding how to best remedy the health, safety, and structural issues of the buildings to secure our District’s facilities for future generations.
Our recommendations for Excel Aid:
$1.2 million is available to the district. The money should be spent on:
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Work for Newbridge Road School roof and/or masonry to resolve water infiltration
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Install a new fire alarm system at Newbridge Road School
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Install a new fire alarm system at Dinkelmeyer School
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Install a new fire system at Park Ave School
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Repair and upgrade doors and hardware at Saw Mill and Martin Ave.
* The roof replacement at the Gunther School is in the current year’s budget.
Go to the Facilities Report |
