by David Flint
On a split 4-3 vote the Berlin School Board rejected a proposal to put before the taxpayers a $12.6 million plan to renovate and add on to the Berlin Elementary School. At a special meeting Monday, Board President Frank Zwack made a motion to prepare a referendum on a renovation and construction plan that would add six new classrooms, put the building in compliance with health, safety and disability requirements and enable the consolidation of elementary education at that site. Jeffrey Paine seconded the motion and Elizabeth Miller joined them in voting for it. The motion was defeated by the no votes of Thomas Morelli, Julie Darling, Beverly Stewart and Donald French.
The vote followed another presentation by Dr. Rick Timbs of the financial consulting firm Bernard P. Donegan, Inc. who summarized the costs and aid ramifications of five proposed capital projects for the District ranging in estimated cost from $21.7 million to $9.6 million. Architects from CS Arch who developed the construction and renovation plans were also in attendance to answer questions. Timbs estimated the net local cost of the $12.6 million project would be $5.9 million and that the average annual cost to a taxpayer with a home full valued at $125,000 would be $56 with the regular STAR exemption.
Zwack selected the $12.6 million project that would include only work at Berlin Elementary and would not include any construction or renovation at the Middle School/High School or at the bus garage. He felt the additional cost of work beyond the elementary school would not be acceptable to voters at this time, but he did not want to “piecemeal” the work at Berlin Elementary by going to a lower cost project. The project is also a scaled down Berlin Elementary project as it does not include most of the originally proposed outside improvements and drops some of the inside work not considered absolutely necessary.
Zwack said he believed it was “counterproductive to sit here and keep arguing” about whether the project is affordable. Rather he said it was time to turn it over to the taxpayers, with all the costs and potential risks explained, and let them decide. Miller and Paine supported him in this, expressing concern that much of the work is required to get into compliance with the law and State Education directives and that further delay in accomplishing the consolidation the Board has already decided on will cause further escalation of costs. Paine estimated that construction costs are going up 8% every year.
At the previous meeting Morelli had asked for an updated 5-year financial plan showing the impact on the tax levy. Interim Business Administrator Scott Hunter presented the plan which included the $12.5 million capital project. The plan showed that tax levy increases could be kept to 4% through 2013-14 except that it would be 4.6% in the year 2010-11 when debt service kicks in. Hunter noted that there would be some transfers from the capital reserve and that the plan assumes a 4% increase each year in State aid. It also assumes savings from closing down Stephentown Elementary School in 2009 and Grafton Elementary in 2010 as well as the sale of those buildings by 2012-13.
Beverly Stewart questioned the plausibility of continuing 4% State aid increases in the face of the current economic crisis. She said she had been reading about the possibility of decreases even in mid-year. She also expressed doubt about the sale of the empty school buildings given the current market.
Morelli expressed concern, too, recalling that the District’s Auditor just last week had advised the Board to be careful of what they commit to in these unstable times. Morelli wanted to be sure the Board did not do anything to jeopardize the educational initiatives they had put in place in the past two years. He suggested that the District close Stephentown next year. Those students, he said, could be accommodated at Berlin Elementary without constructing new classrooms. The District could then realize the $430,000 savings that could be used for building or education and proceed from there to develop a plan for further consolidation and take time to determine what the real construction and renovation needs are. In the meantime he believed that the spending of a heavily aided $100,000 per year for ADA compliance that the Board had agreed to earlier would suffice as a good faith effort to meet State Education requirements. Morelli also rejected Paine’s estimate of an annual 8% escalation in construction costs, predicting that in the current climate reduced volume of work should rather lead to downward pressure on both material and labor costs.
Interim Schools Superintendent Charlotte Gregory said after the meeting that it is not possible now to hold a referendum in December as had been tentatively planned. The Board, she said, will meet next at their regular meeting on Tuesday, November 17 at 7 pm. At that time they will review figures on another option that the Architects have proposed but which has not been costed out yet. This plan, based on closing Stephentown but leaving Grafton open for the time being, would include no new construction at Berlin Elementary but would include the infrastructure items in the $12.6 million project as well as all the more critical exterior and site items. The central office would remain in the modular building at that location. The plan would also include roof replacement and ventilation work at the Middle School/High School as well as other work there to comply with code, health and safety requirements. The architects roughly estimated the cost of this project to be $11.5 million.