'Now is the time' to revamp schools
$123 million district overhaul plan unveiled; gets warm response
19 comments below
Three classes are taught in the basement of the Aquebogue elementary school. At the Roanoke Avenue elementary school, students must walk through a storage area, past a bathroom and down three flights of stairs to get to gym class, next to a boiler room in a cavernous basement.
Middle School teachers are forced to hold classes in former storage rooms. Music classes in hallways. High school science labs that don't even work.
These were just some of the situations Riverhead schools officials highlighted -- through a slide show and video presentation -- in pitching a proposed $122.9 million district-wide expansion and renovation project Tuesday night.
"We have seven beautiful buildings that have been neglected over the years," Superintendent Diane Scricca told a crowd of about 150 in the high school auditorium. While other buildings in Riverhead, including the hospital, the library, the fire department and the courts, have either expanded or built anew, the schools have not, she said, despite the fact that enrollment has grown over the past 20 years.
The presentation also highlighted problems at the Riley Avenue elementary school, where three student support groups are held on a stage in front of the cafeteria while students eat lunch.
The entire third grade at the Phillips Avenue elementary school is taught in portable, modular classrooms that were originally meant to be temporary. This means that if the school were ever put in lockdown during an emergency, these students would instead be "locked out" of the main building.
The presentation, which also included an outline of how the district-wide overhaul would be paid for, lasted about 90 minutes
And feedback from the public was almost entirely positive.
"I think this is a great plan," resident Laura Wells said. "I'm sorry my kids aren't going to benefit from it."
"I applaud the board," said resident Thaddaeus Hill. "I think the project overall is phenomenal."
"This is long overdue," former board member Brian Stark said.
He also cautioned that while the people at Tuesday's meeting spoke in support of the proposal, it's the people who weren't there who will criticize it.
The issue is expected to be put to a referendum in February.
There are no new buildings proposed, but expansions to existing buildings would cost an estimated $90.2 million, officials said. All modulars would be replaced by regular classrooms connected to the main schools, except for new modulars at the high school, which would be connected to the school and would house the Star Academy. Currently, only the Riley Avenue and Aquebogue schools do not use modulars.
The plan calls for expansions to all the district school buildings except the Roanoke Avenue school, which would be renovated and become an administrative office. Another main component is to re-align the grades so that students will have to switch buildings only three times, instead of four, during their 12 years.
Currently, the Roanoke, Riley Avenue, Phillips Avenue and Aquebogue schools teach grades k-4, while all fifth and sixth graders go the Pulaski Street school, all seventh and eighth graders go to the Middle School and all students in grades 9-12 go to the high school.
The proposed switch would now make Riley Avenue, Phillips Avenue, Pulaski Street and Aquebogue into grade K-5 buildings, the Middle School would handle grades 6-8, and the high school grades 9-12, with Roanoke no longer being used as a school.
"This would minimize the type of movements that can traumatize students at this age," Dr. Scricca said.
Roanoke Avenue, which was built in the 1920s, has classrooms 33 percent smaller than what new ones are required to be, and its campus doesn't have enough room to expand the building, Dr. Scricca said.
Infrastructure improvements and renovations to existing buildings would cost about $22.8 million, officials said. These include such items as roof repairs on several of the buildings, ventilation upgrades and maintenance work that has been put off for years.
Also proposed is a reconstruction of the athletic fields, which would see the football field moved to the area just south of the tennis courts and west of the high school track, the administrative office demolished and additional fields built. The new football field would be artificial turf, and a new concession stand and bleachers would be built, under the proposal.
About $2.3 million in renovation is also proposed for the bus garage.
Officials say now is the time to approve a $122.9 million bond issue, because interest rates are low and construction costs also will be lower because of the slow economy.
"We can wait to build when things get better, but it will cost more," said board member Tim Griffing.
In addition, officials say all the district's existing debt will be paid off by 2018, so the impact of the new debt associated with the proposed expansion will be lessened.
The amount of debt paid each year per district household as a result of the proposed $122.9 million bond would start out low, at an additional $56 in 2010, and peak at $236 per year from 2014 to 2018. After that, it would be $208 or $209 per year each year from 2019 through 2030, according to district figures. Riverhead residents right now pay about $56 in debt service per household each year.
tgannon@timesreview.com
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19 comments found
Carte Blanche : 2/5/2010
Higher taxes? just what we all need in this ghost town.
I'd take a broken down school over bloated teachers pay any day. Get rid of the multiple do-nothing, over-lap administrators who earn $100,000 plus a year and put that money towards improvements. A quality education begins with quality teachers, (and we have a few), not some new structures. Some of the most sought after educational structures are over 100 years old and they are beautiful because they've been maintained properly. Fire this maintenance department for their ineptness at maintaining our school buildings and grounds.Student population is dwindling as I speak. You want to raise my property taxes so you can all feel good in a new school, I think not. Any fool who votes for this expansion has rocks in their head for brains and I'd like to sale them some swamp land in Louisiana. Get real people. We don't live in Pleasant ville. We live in a crime ridden, high taxed, nepotistic, behind closed door dealing town/school board fiasco ghost township. These crooks who tout that our children educational needs aren't being met, are the same ones using our children as shields to hide behind, to pilfer our pockets and bank accounts. Wake the F@#$^%&%* UP.
: 1/25/2010
VOTE NO!
Our taxes are driving home values down.
Our taxes are the reason people are buying in Southold rather than Riverhead.
Vote yes and watch yourself lose equity--if you have any left!
: 12/26/2009
NO. Eliminate administrators and staff. Eliminate unfunded mandates. Eliminate the waste and corruption in the system. There will be plenty of monies "for the kid's".
Throw out the current School Board and start over.
move to Riverhead? : 12/9/2009
"Better schools, mean that there will be more professional people moving into Riverhead, so their children can benefit from the fine schools, equipment and teachers that Riverhead has to offer."
Where are these professional people going to work? In Fantasyland? There are no jobs nearby that pay enough to afford these taxes. Oh, wait, I guess you're talking about teachers and policemen moving here.
HIGHER taxes? : 12/9/2009
"In Riverhead our taxes are not nearly as bad as other districts."
Like where? the Half Hollow Hills district, which is only about 500% above Riverhead academically, and the homeowners are able to commute to high paying jobs in Manhattan? The only people who are going to be able to afford these taxes are the teachers who benefit from them.
More money for the teachers : 12/9/2009
"I can't believe that all of this money is going to be spent on buildings. The district should be more concerned with saving faculty and staff positions "
God forbid the faculty and staff face the same layoffs the rest of us do. God forbid they forego 40 years of golfing in Florida while we pay for it. @@
where were you? : 12/9/2009
I think they were the same place they were last night when the board voted: HOME, There needs to be a real movement. The public is not aware of what is going on. WE MUST VOTE THIS DOWN. WE CANNOT AFFORD HIGHER TAXES. Let the teachers take pay cuts to pay for it (like that will ever happen).
Where were you? : 11/4/2009
To those that think this should not happen: Where were you on the 27th? Did you attend the presentation? I don't think there were 100 people there from the community I did attend and I believe that if we're going to be able to educate our children, we need to do so in safe buildings that are well maintained. The buildings are clearly overcrowded, under maintained, and need help. I am also tremendously concerned with the staff layoffs that occurred recently, but staff budgets are not a bond issue. My two young children attend elementary school here, their teachers thus far have been absolutely outstanding, and they deserve a decent place to work just as much as my kids deserve a decent place to learn.
RCSD-There are excellent and poor teachers throughout : 11/3/2009
If most of the local taxpayers went online and visited different school districts in and out of NY they would see much more being done with much less dollars! Every child deserves the best education possible. There are districts who have sent district supervisors back into the schools as principals due to the economy. I have worked side by side with many of Riverheads teachers and they are not all "the best". In fact, its disappointing how many people are going out of their way to put their children in other public and private schools to avoid Riverheads public schools.
ABSOLUTELY NOT : 11/3/2009
NO WAY CAN WE AFFORD THIS - no - absolutely not. -eliminate administrators and use their salaries. They can use some of the stimulus monies in the form of extended unemployment benefits. NO to the milions in bonds this town can Not afford.
School Expansion : 11/2/2009
I can't believe that all of this money is going to be spent on buildings. The district should be more concerned with saving faculty and staff positions so that students will not suffer academically and excessed employees wont suffer financially.
School expansion : 11/2/2009
Weren't the schools renovated just a few years ago? Who did the planning that we have to go through this again? Doesn't anyone think or plan ahead? I know the elementary schools went from K-3 to K-4 just a few years ago, and grade 6 was shifted from the middle school to Pulaski Street school. Why wasn't future growth accounted for at that time? Are we going to be asked to go through another school expansion in another 5 years? Something has to change drastically in Riverhead.
gold plated? : 11/2/2009
Gold plated hallways? How about keeping up with the current required building codes? Our buildings in this district are not up to the legal codes. We have a responsibility to the safety of our students as well as educating them to the best of our abilities allowing them to compete in a 21st century world. In Riverhead our taxes are not nearly as bad as other districts. That's not to say that any of us want to see our taxes increased, however it is time to do what is RIGHT for the students in this district.
YES! : 11/1/2009
SO glad to see it too. Our childrens' education is worth every penny. Better schools, mean that there will be more professional people moving into Riverhead, so their children can benefit from the fine schools, equipment and teachers that Riverhead has to offer.
school waste nanny state : 11/1/2009
Why won,t school district tax funded employees tell us how many illegal immigrant students are attending the facilities in this town.Why am i obligated to educate people who shouldnot be here?Also in the age of the internet why are we still using the byzantine, obsolete methods of educating people,Could it be the job security of the greedy unions that tax us to death?
Trusted Public Servant : 10/30/2009
Root out corruption - all of it - where ever it is - vote. GOD Bless America
: 10/29/2009
Why is it so many other school districts do so much more with so much less? In and out of New York State. What a mess Riverhead is now in.....School and Town management of land, buildings, etc., etc.,. so sad and so needless yet their hands are always in the pockets of taxpayers just struggling to survive.
School Monies??? : 10/29/2009
We pay so much in school taxes all our schools should have gold plated hall ways and class rooms!!! Where is all that Tax money going ???? Something is wrong in Riverhead...
glad to hear it : 10/29/2009
our district needs this, it's a good time, and I'm glad the initial response was good.
