SCHOOLS: Eyeing Elementary Expansion, Board changes plans after a June defeat

In a departure from previous expansion plans, Tuesday night the East Hampton School Board decided to explore concentrating construction behind the John M. Marshall Elementary School.

According to Raymond Gualtieri, the district superintendent, the plan would bring the fifth-grade class back to the elementary school and add at least seven new classrooms and a new cafeteria there. The middle school building on Newtown Lane would be renovated, and the high school would be expanded and renovated, according to the preliminary plans.

Presented at the second work session of the summer devoted to discussing a referendum, the plan is the first not to call for a new middle school building on the Long Lane campus.

Representatives of Beatty, Harvey, and Associates, the architects working on the project, estimated that the John Marshall project would cut between $15 million and $20 million from the $90 million figure that was defeated in a June referendum. The plans were given to Victor Canseco of Sandpebble Builders to calculate the cost of the project.

Although the board agreed that this new plan is not as comprehensive as the one that was just voted down, there were elements that appealed to most members.

First, the school district has the space to expand behind John Marshall, and this would not greatly affect the already crowded high school fields. Second, with added class space there is the prospect of starting a prekindergarten program at John Marshall. Third, it would not put middle school students on the same campus as high school students, a feature of the previous expansion plan that worried many parents. Finally, board members believe the plan could garner more support by improving the most highly regarded school in the East Hampton School District, John Marshall.

"There's a lot of positive feeling about John Marshall," said Laura Anker Grossman, a board member. "I'd rather just build on the good feelings with John Marshall."

"This school has the most support in the community," said James Amaden, another board member.

Recent voting trends seem to support Mr. Amaden's statement. During the June vote, there were polling places at both the high school and John Marshall. The vote failed by a 2-to-1 ratio at the high school, but the vote at John Marshall was slightly in favor of expansion. With a decreased price tag and construction at the elementary school, the board expects to get more support, especially from elementary school parents.

If the plan were to pass, the middle school would have more space for sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade students, who would no longer have to take classes in the basement. The plan would also build a cafeteria and extra classrooms at the high school.

Still, board members were wary of advancing the new proposition, which would probably amount to about $70 million, without more cuts.

"I don't think that a few million will cut the mustard," said Sandy Vorpahl, a board member. "They don't believe we're overcrowded. They believe we're educating people who aren't here legally, and they're scared by what the feeder schools will do."

There could be a referendum as soon as December.

New Assistant Principal

After the work session concluded, the board convened a regular meeting and announced that Chris Tracey would be the middle school's new assistant principal.

Mr. Tracey had been the district's athletic director since 1995, spending one of those years as an interim principal for the high school. He applied for the job after Anael Alston resigned at the end of the school year. Mr. Alston had been on "special assignment" for the district, away from the middle school, since April.

The district didn't advertise the opening. "We conducted an internal search, and someone expressed interest in the position," Dr. Gualtieri said.

Michael Burns, an assistant principal at the high school and an assistant football coach, was appointed athletic director. He has experience in that capacity, having filled in for Mr. Tracey as athletic director for a year in the late 1990s.

Dr. Gualtieri said the district will begin searching for a new high school assistant principal this week.