School Expansion Price Tag Drops By $10 Million, If referendum fails: 'Band-Aids out the wazoo'

Raymond Gualtieri, the East Hampton School District superintendent, announced last Thursday that in March, the district will propose spending $79.7 million to expand the John M. Marshall Elementary School and East Hampton High School. That sum is about $10 million less than the one proposed in a referendum that was soundly defeated in June. The earlier proposal would have allowed for a new middle school building and a greater expansion of the high school.

The new figure includes 5-percent inflation increases for construction costs for the duration of the project. In today's dollars, it translates to just under $67 million. Dr. Gualtieri told those attending last Thursday's districtwide site-based committee meeting that "in the best-case scenario," the expansion could be completed by September 2012.

The school board has asked for help from Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Kenneth P. LaValle in working to repeal the Wicks Law, legislation that requires that government institutions hire several different contractors for public works projects that cost over $50,000.

It has been estimated that this requirement can add as much as 30 percent to the cost of some projects. If the Wicks Law were repealed, the school could save as much as $10 million, according to Dr. Gualtieri.

Enrollment at all three schools is expected to rise over the next 10 years, Dr. Gualtieri said, adding that the buildings are already overcrowded. The high school has 1,071 students in a building meant to serve 800.

Some of those attending the meeting - there were about 30 people in all, including members of the elementary school, middle school, and high school site-based committees - wondered what Dr. Gualtieri planned to do if the referendum were defeated.

"We're going to be buying Band-Aids out the wazoo," he replied.

Specifically, the district will continue to buy portable classrooms. It already has 10 of these, at a cost of $300,000 each for a three-year lease.

"If the referendum fails in March, the first priority is to get kids out of the middle school basement and build a trailer park at John Marshall," Dr. Gualtieri said. The district would move fifth graders from the building to 10 portable trailers, he said.

The district would then have to repair the roofs of all three buildings and remove two oil tanks at the high school with money from its regular budget. There would be an attempt to pass pieces of the expansion project one at a time.

"It's going to be a significant amount of money for a patch job," said Dr. Gualtieri, who added that the district spent almost to $200,000 preparing the last referendum for a vote. That sum will also go up if a second bond vote is defeated.

Wendy Hall, the school board president, asked those attending the meeting to start informing the community about the new plan.

"We are really between a rock and a hard place," she said. "We feel that this project is a reality. Talk it up and get excited about it. We need that."