New Paltz Middle School hosted a public forum Thursday, Jan. 30 to provide up-to-date information on the progress of the $52.9 million capital project ongoing in the school district and its possible impacts on the schools and community in general.
Bill Wisbauer of the district’s architectural firm, Tetra Tech, and Lou Rodriguez of the Palombo Group, the construction management firm for the project, joined a panel that included schools Superintendent Maria Rice, School Board president Aimee Hemminger and board vice-president Michael O’Donnell, assistant superintendent of business for the district, Richard Linden, technology and network specialist Josh Volpert and middle school principal Richard Wiesenthal. Also on hand were Ann Sheldon, assistant principal for the middle school, Barbara Clinton, high school principal and district clerk, Dusti Callo.
The meeting had been publicized and parents and community members were encouraged to attend and share their questions and concerns, but unfortunately the panel outnumbered the audience. Superintendent Rice said that if any parent or community member who was unable to attend the forum has questions, they may present those to the district via e-mail or phone call at any time.
The capital project is on time and under budget, according to Rodriguez.
Divided into eleven smaller projects from the start to facilitate management and financing of the work, several of those segments have been completed with the entire project slated for completion during the winter of 2018-19, contingent upon timely approvals from the State Education Department. State aid is covering approximately half the cost.
Phase one work (projects A through D) involving infrastructure — replacing folding partition walls in the gym at Lenape and classrooms at the high school, the first phase of roof replacement at the middle school and roof replacements done at the high school and Duzine Elementary — is complete.
The bid has been awarded for project E, which covers the balance of renovation work at Duzine and Lenape elementary schools. Construction on that project will begin this summer, scheduled for completion before school starts again in the fall.
Project F involves the high school addition. The bid was awarded in November with ground broken in December to create five new classrooms. The addition will take care of the current overcrowding and lack of classroom space for course offerings. The additional 7,000 square feet will consist of five new classrooms for a net gain of four learning spaces after other building upgrades are complete, including the relocation and expansion of the guidance office. The addition is expected to be completed by the end of July, said Rodriguez, which will give the district time to furnish and prepare the space for students’ return in September.
The design of the addition is unique, according to Wisbauer, because it will allow for collaborative learning and the space is adjustable according to how it needs to be utilized. The design also allows for a second story to be added in the future should that be necessary.
The other phase of work at the high school will start this summer, involving the guidance office conversion from classrooms. It’s anticipated to be complete by early fall. New conference space will also be created.
Project F1, the addition to expand the transportation facility, is currently under review awaiting approval by NYSED, the New York State Education Department. Once that approval comes through, said Wisbauer, work is slated to begin in the summer of 2018.
Project F2, the septic work at the transportation facility done earlier than planned because of system failure, is also finished. “We had to do that as its own separate, quick project,” Wisbauer said, “and that’s all been done and fixed.”
Project H involves districtwide technology work that has been approved and is currently out for bid. “Right now we’re looking at proposals from several vendors to see who can come up with the best plan for us to get where we want to be,” said network specialist Josh Volpert. “Really our primary focus here is, number one, taking the opportunity to build an infrastructure that’s going to last and be expandable, and updateable going into the future, and also to develop more wireless capabilities. Clearly we’ll be moving to more and more mobile devices, and so we really want to make sure we have the capacity to handle a large influx of wireless devices. And that they’ll work anywhere, in any of our buildings, which isn’t the case right now.”
Once the bid is awarded for the technology work, it’s expected to be completed by fall.
Project G deals with the expansion and renovation of the middle school facility. The project has two main components, a 35,000-square-foot addition toward the back of the current building that involves spaces for art, technology, locker rooms, new library space and more. “This is a complete redesign from what was originally proposed to the voters,” said Wisbauer. “We redesigned this and came up with a much more creative space that allows the program to work better. We were also able to secure with this plan roughly $1 million more in building aid than was originally projected when the bond issue was done.”
The comprehensive project at the middle school is the most complex out of all the work to be done, said Rodriguez, noting that the state Education Department took additional time to review the work and approval was only recently received. This has pushed back the projected completion date of this part of the middle school renovation to June 2018.
Plans for providing a new central receiving area and district vehicle storage between the high school and transportation facility are currently with NYSED for review. Project “I” is the last of the projects, involving districtwide kitchens. Plans have not yet been submitted to the state for approval.
Superintendent Rice noted that the community will want to be aware that with summer being the “prime time” for work to be done, there will be limited availability of the school buildings for use this summer.
Rodriguez noted that while the work being done at all the buildings this summer may not provide “a big visual from the outside,” inside is another matter, with the scope of work preventing any activities from taking place at Duzine, the middle or high school, and only limited use of Lenape’s second floor.
Duzine will be getting septic work done with bathroom construction, said Rodriguez, and getting power upgrades. Lenape will have work done at the entrance, with the work including fire alarm upgrades, smoke alarms and sensors, and HVAC work. The middle school will be dealing with having water lines from the village moved and adjusted. And at the high school, “we’re doing some pretty significant work throughout the building.”
More information is available on the district website at newpaltz.k12.ny.us.
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