School Board Members Approve Engineering Spending for Middle School Upgrades

Members of the approved $203,740 in architectural and engineering costs Thursday in a 6-2 vote for several improvement projects at the .

The money is divided between field projects, a field house project and a maintenance building project.

Joseph Blundo, one of the dissenters, said he believed the vote was premature.

"This project has not yet been approved by the board and the board has not had a full discussion on the number of projects that are on our potential docket," Blundo said. "For us to spend in excess of $200,000 before the board has agreed that the further spending of those dollars are warranted, given the size of this expense, it is premature to do at this time."

He added that among board members "there was clear disagreement of the ranking of the projects that need to be done" and he was unsure that the district would be able to afford the projects if the architectural and engineering costs alone were greater than $200,000.

Superintendent Geoffrey Zoeller said, "It's normal business practice to do thorough engineering and architectural investigation about the scope of a project, vetting out exact costs."

He admitted that there isn't enough money to do all desired projects, but said that it's important to have some ready to go for when the final numbers for the capital reserve are determined. He said the middle school upgrades "were in the most advanced state of readiness to be researched."

"Without a thorough research of the scope of a project and how much it's going to cost, I feel like we're going to be making decisions without having data," Zoeller said. "You have to spend the money to research and develop a project to truly understand the cost dynamics of what you're going to be spending."

The majority of the board agreed. Blundo and board member Darlene Mandeville voted against the measure. Lee-Ann Schaadt was absent from the meeting.

Members of the board unanimously approved spending up to $146,496 for architectural services of FKA Architects for the upper and lower gym locker room alteration project.