In anticipation of the bond vote needed for the Montauk School’s planned renovation, Joshua Odom, the district superintendent and principal, has begun meeting with community organizations and parents to talk about the need for the project.
“Our current building status is ‘unacceptable,’ “ he told the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee on Feb. 3, quoting a building condition survey from the New York State Education Department. “We’ve seen significant decaying of infrastructure,” he said, “the need for replacement of HVAC systems, classrooms that need to be reworked, and just the way students learn has evolved over time.”
The district plans to repurpose the existing gym into a performing arts space, build a new gym with a greenhouse and bathrooms, redo its library, and address a range of other maintenance and repair issues.
The committee over all responded to the bond favorably and some members questioned Mr. Odom further. Chris Yula wanted to know about the academic improvements that could be expected if the renovation goes forward.
“We’re looking to update our science rooms,” Mr. Odom explained. “It’s one of the biggest things right now with the new state standards on science.” He also added that the school is limited in how it can do that now because of “ventilation requirements.”
Last week Mr. Odom and Montauk School Board members also had meetings with parents spanning three days. “I think it went really well,” Sarah Roberts, a board member, said at the board’s meeting Tuesday evening. “I think the attendance increased from the
first night to the second night to the third night,” she added, “which I think is to be expected, because people start chattering and then they want to know more themselves.”
Additionally during the meeting Mr. Odom presented the board with a line item cost analysis, which was, he said, already out of date. According to Mr. Odom the school has already been able to save around $142,000 internally from initial projects by working on some projects in house.
Because of this, Mr. Odom and Nick Finazzo, another board member, said they feel confident that the project will come in under budget.
“Personally I expect that $38 [million] to not come in at 38. That is the highest it could possibly go,” Mr. Finazzo said, also mentioning that the project’s budget has many contingencies built in that may not be utilized.
The biggest takeaway from meetings so far, was that Mr. Odom and the board need to further engage with the community as the bond vote draws closer, especially as it concerns the need for the project.
“The project is imperative for the success of the school,” Mr. Finazzo said, “and as I said at the meetings the other night some people are looking at the new gym as an easy target. But I think it’s important to understand that we’re going to be replacing four classrooms and in order to do that we’re going to need space.”