Massena Central superihtendent addresses capital project public concerns
May 11—MASSENA — With the vote coming up this month for a proposed $79.8 million capital project, Massena Central School Superintendent Ronald P. Burke addressed what he saw as some of the public's concerns during the school board's monthly meeting.
"When we talk about that $80 million project, it's an investment in our facilities, to maintain our facilities, to keep our facilities viable for student occupation, and for teachers and staff to be in our buildings. Just like your houses, we have to do maintenance. This is really not a glamorous project. When this project ends, I'm not sure who's going to want to come for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It's not real pretty," he said.
But, he added, "There are things in our capital project that people are going to argue about and think are unnecessary. One of them, and I'll just pull the bandage back here right now, and that is the turf," he said.
The turf field had been installed in 2009, at a time when current school board member Timothy J. Hayes was serving as the district's athletic director. It was first used in September 2009 for a varsity football game.
"The turf is at the end of its life expectancy. When that turf was put in, it probably had a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years and we're there. When it gets to the point that it fails the compression test, we can't use it," Burke said.
He said it's not a matter of "just pulling the carpet out and throwing grass seed down."
"The sub base of the turf field is not the sub base for a grass field. So, if that turf fails and we have to replace it and the community says we want grass, we can do grass. But, it means a whole rebuild of that area," he said. "At some point, the community decided they wanted the turf. They felt that was the investment for the future, and it was also hopefully expressed that there's an ongoing maintenance cost to this. Every decade or so you're going to be re-pulling that out and putting new carpet down."
Another portion of the project would address bus electrification at the district's bus garage.
"That is about a $2.4 million proposition of that $80 million, and I think enough people have heard me already talk about my concern about electric buses and the whole process. However, as of last night, we had very firm deadlines. The original deadline to purchase electric buses was 2027. You could ask for a waiver for two years. So, by 2029 you could not purchase anything but an electric bus. They're not going to make diesels. They're not going to be allowed to be sold to schools in New York state. That is state law," Burke said. "The other part is that by 2035 whatever diesel or gasoline buses you're running, you no longer are allowed to use. Every bus has to be electric."
He said they were planning for a worst-case scenario by including the electrification in the capital project.
"I'm going to call it the way I see it. I look at this as our worst-case scenario that nothing changes with the law So, that $2.4 million is a really a plan. We'll plan for it. We will identify how we're going to electrify and put the charging stations where they're going to go. But, when it comes time for this, we're not going to go out for bid on this project until late 2026 or early 20276. My hope is that the law truly changes and just because it's there doesn't mean we have to use it," Burke said.
He said, if the law changes and the school board agrees, the district will continue to use the conventional buses.
"We will scrap that $2.4 million electrification plan and we'll go to Plan B. Plan B is our diesel, our gasoline tanks are now approaching the 20-year mark, and we know that about year 25 we're probably going to be ordered by the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) to replace those. So, instead of spending $2.4 million on electrification, hopefully we're talking about a price tag of somewhere around maybe a half a million to three-quarters of a million to replace those two tanks," he said.
He said they had to include the electrification in case it was included in the state budget, which had not yet been approved when the school board met.
"We're going to be voting in less than two weeks. We had to include that because we have no idea where the budget was going to go or how the law could possibly change," Burke said.
The pool and the girl's locker room also needed to be addressed, he said.
"I think there are some things that are truly essential, and then we're always going to have some disagreement about is that line item really necessary or not necessary," he said.
Isabel Beard, the student representative to the school board, agreed that the project was necessary. She said her math teacher had to move to the computer lab because "there was literally stuff falling from the ceiling and causing students to cough."
"So, I think, coming from a student perspective, living in the school almost eight hours every day, five days a week, while it looks nice on the outside, you really start to notice the issues in the school. So, while I think there might be some debate on the justification for what we're looking to improve, I think the improvements are necessary," she said.
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