Facilities Committee
Looks to Finish Work
The Huntington School District's Long Range Facilities Planning Committee hopes to wrap-up its work in October. Members have been poring over various options and weighing assorted recommendations to the Huntington School Board.
The committee has already held five meetings. Members have wrestled with various issues ranging from the possible reacquisition of the former Robert K. Toaz Junior High School to the impact on the district should Avalon Bay build a 490 unit/944 bedroom housing complex in Huntington Station.
Committee members have discussed various grade level configurations in the district's eight buildings, from a stand-alone kindergarten site to a model that utilized two middle schools. The group has also looked at reacquiring Huntington Town Hall (It was once used an elementary school, junior high school and high school.)
Existing floor plan diagrams have been studied along with aerial photographs of sites. Committee members have looked at how the district's current buildings are being utilized in relation to the educational program now in place. The cost of various options has been pared as the committee has eliminated certain aspects of potential construction.
"The committee members have been working conscientiously and have come well-prepared to each of the meetings," Superintendent John J. Finello said. "They've studied mountains of information and have participated in hours of discussions."
When the committee met for the first time on June 15, members were presented with 41 different potential configuration options. That number has now been whittled down to just three. Members are considering space options that would take into account either a resumption of elementary classes at Jack Abrams School or the facility remaining off-line.
Huntington School Board members created the committee on June 7. The members include a cross-section of the district and community. Roger Smith, a principal in the district's architectural firm, Burton Behrendt Smith, has been acting as the facilitator of the panel.
The committee's voting members include John J. Finello, David Grackin, Joe Giani, Ken Card, Michelle Marino, Margaret Evers, Marlon Small, Marsha Neville, Mary Stokkers, Jarrett Stein, John Amato, Carmela Leonardi, Julissa Garris-Shade, Karen Fischer, Joanne Cicio, Georganne White, Laraine Schirripa, Diane Grassi, Michele Kustera, Cathy Ribando, Jeanine Mulroy, Jennifer Herbert, Patrick Giles, Paul Eidle, Carrie Nicodem, Kevin Thourborne, Don Kiley, Jennifer Casey, Crystal White, Barbara Wanamaker and Richard Oehmler.
The committee's non-voting members include Paul Rispoli, Georgia McCarthy, Christine Bene and John P. Paci III. Mr. Smith is also a non-voting member along with three other architects/engineers from BBS.
Trustees charged the committee with analyzing the district's long term elementary level facilities needs and possible solutions, "including discussions of availability, functionality and [the] costs of various building options." The committee has been considering existing, previously owned and potentially new school buildings, along with additions and alterations to present structures as possible solutions to a shortage of space.
Over the course of its first five meetings, committee members decided against recommending the creation of either two middle schools or two intermediate schools (grades 4-6). Also ruled out was adding another grade level to J. Taylor Finley Middle School, construction of an entirely new building or the reacquisition of either Toaz or Town Hall. The committee also wants to keep the four primary buildings intact.
The date of the committee's October meeting is expected to be announced soon.