Capital proposal - Board of Education meeting Oct. 13, 2009

At last week's board meeting, the architect provided a summary of building needs and estimated total cost by building, but there were no costs attached to specific projects within each building, in part due to the preliminary nature of the evaluation.

At the board meeting last night, audience members and some board members expressed concern that the voters would not have a clear picture of what would be voted upon, should the board go ahead with presenting the $5 million capital proposal to the voters (potential voting date of Dec.8, 2009), nor would the voters have an understanding of individual project costs or the criteria by which a given project might or might not eventually be included in the final construction. As construction costs are refined later in the project, it might be necessary to include or exclude certain elements due to their costs being less than or more than originally thought.

The board agreed to develop and make known such criteria, but the voters should realize that the actual work that will be completed may differ from that which is specified, and that voters are voting for the $5MM bond issue, not for a specific package of projects.

The board will be holding public meetings and make available further information. At present I have the architect's spreadsheet showing the individual projects and total cost by building. If you would like a copy, send an e-mail to chathamny@gmail.com. Please keep in mind that this may be revised and may not represent the actual work that will be done!!!