Calendar: No February Break?
The vote on whether or not to approve the school district’s proposed 2015-2016 school calendar has been shelved for now after Riverhead Central Faculty Association member Gary Carlson and community member Lisa Lagnina of Aquebogue expressed concerns at the March 10 Board of Education meeting.
“It’s minus a February break for the first time in my lifetime,” Carlson said, adding that while the calendar is not something the RCFT usually remarks upon, they view it as “a violation of contract language and will be treating it as such.”
Lagnena’s concerns stemmed from a belief that children’s schedules are already overburdened. She said that she is worried about the “burnout of the students if this break is eliminated,” adding that her first and third grade students needed the February break to provide “creative and authentic learning opportunities such as travel that have been crowded out by the busy Common Core day and the tax cap strangled budget.”
Lagnena also added that the test prep that starts this time of year already is overwhelming to her children, and she can see a noticeable difference in their behavior. Her third grade daughter commented that she “can’t wait to go back to normal reading, like real books.” She said that her daughter is already drained with the current test prep schedule.
Carney responded by saying that she does not believe in a lot of test prep, and it is something that the district will look into and address. As for the proposed changes to the calendar, Carney said that she was approached by building principals who were “very frustrated with all the interruptions in the school day between the long Christmas break, all of the snow days, and mid-terms with the older kids. It felt like kids were really suffering by not having that consistency.
“One thing we were considering is having the same number of days of school, but having shorter period breaks throughout the school year so that kids’ routines aren’t as interrupted as much,” Carney added.
The other issue is that this calendar change allows the district to schedule the start time for school after Labor Day. With the shortened summer months, this time is useful with the high school and middle school construction wrapping up and the construction and Pulaski and Roanoke beginning.
Plans for new Calverton bus depot
Roger Smith from BBS Architects presented what he calls a “master plan” in regard to the district’s plans for the proposed transportation and athletic field projects.
“The district found a piece of property on Edwards Avenue which was a bus depot. And we’re going to basically take it back over and make it a bus depot,” Smith said. The parcel of land in question, located on Edwards Avenue near Calverton Links, is similar in size to the property the where the bus barn is located currently.
The property will need to be renovated to accommodate a great amount of paved surface to store buses, as well as a renovation and slight addition to the building that currently exists on site in order to meet the district’s needs.
The proposed renovations and site changes have been reviewed and approved by the Pine Barrens Commission.
The proposed site as designed would allow for the storage of upwards of 72 buses on site and would have enough parking for the people who will work on site as well as the personal vehicles of the bus drivers.
“This is a wonderful piece of property,” Smith said. “I think it works perfectly for what your needs are, and it allows each one of the next dominoes to fall quite nicely in place.”
Once the bus garage is removed, the master plan allows for two additional fields to be constructed on the property. Smith noted that while McKillop Field, the grandstand and press box are under the current bond referendum, the new fields created are not part of the upcoming proposal. This proposal, which will be up for public vote on May 19, would only include the removal of the building and the restoration of the site.
Part of this proposal also includes the relocation of the Buildings and Grounds department to an open piece of land located between the track field at the High School and School Street. “This is an ideal location because the majority of structures are here, it’s not far away, and we can improve the site right away,” Mr. Smith explained, “What this is giving is us the opportunity for whole building equipment inside. Repair space, a place to put mowers… It will be a pre-engineered structure. A very simple, but adaptable structure.”
A breakdown of the costs are as follows:
- Purchase Edwards Ave property for new bus garage location: $3,500,000
- Renovate Edwards Ave. Property & Existing building: $3,400,000
- Construct new buildings and ground building and paved surface and outdoor storage: $1,800,000
- Demolish existing bus garage and restoration of the site: $800,000
- Overall Total $9,500,000
As Smith explained, the funding for this project is already in place, and in May the voters will have an opportunity to vote to allocate this use of the funding.
New Synthetic Turf Field
In response to the frequent requests by community members for the district to provide turf fields, BBS put together a proposal to transform the soccer field currently located behind McKillop Field into a synthetic field. “We believe that it can be used for multiple uses,” Smith said. “We stripe these so they can be used by multiple teams, whether that be soccer, lacrosse or field hockey. When these are done, they will be absolutely stunning, he said.
Smith said the cost of such a synthetic field would be around $1.2 million in total, including any contingencies and fees.
Chris Nentwich of Aquebogue asked if there is any chance on working with Riverhead Town to collaborate on a turf field. Doing so, he said, would reduce costs for both parties. If the town and the district were to collaborate, the school would have priority and would be available for town use at other times, such as PAL sports, Nentwich said, adding that he has talked with Town Councilwoman Jodi Giglio and believes that she would like to work in that direction.
Greg Meyer, president of the Board of Education, stated that he would love to work with the town and noted that this is something that has been discussed for many years.
In discussing the athletic fields, Andrew Fitzpatrick of Aquebogue noted that the current field conditions are terrible, giving our athletes a distinct disadvantage. “Our grass fields do not drain. They are the worst fields in Suffolk County, in my opinion,” Fitzpatrick said. “There are two fields that are shaped like a bowl, and water sits in them. I’ve been in this community for 14 years and the fields have been in that shape since the day I have arrived,” Fitzpatrick said.
Budget Presentation #3
Superintendent Nancy Carney made the third presentation of the budget on Tuesday night, once again reminding everyone that the state aid numbers have still not been presented to the district, therefore making planning more complicated. It is anticipated that the district will have those numbers by April 1.
In order to meet the needs of the district, there are plans to add additional teachers in a variety of areas and grades, as well as staff in support and clerical positions. Even with these additions Ms. Carney said that “we believe the 3.76percent increase will be within our tax levy cap.”
Future budget presentations:
- March 24 – Revenues and Projected Tax Levy, & Other Ballot Items
- April 14 – BOE Adoption of the Proposed Budget
- May 12 – Public Hearing on Proposed Budget
- May 19 – Budget vote (6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at local polling locations)
The full budget presentation is available on the school district’s website, http://www.riverhead.net.
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