WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL SCHOOL DAYS EDITION. By Don Hughes and John Bailey . September 23, 2006: The school plans presently being presented to the public calling for $69.6 Million in Capital Project Improvements and the estimated costs could have been as detailed as the school district wanted them to be without violating state guidelines, WPCNR has learned.
Superintendent of Schools Explaining the $69.6 Million Capital Project to Mamaroneck Avenue School PTA this week. Photo, WPCNR News
The guidelines come from actual governing School District Operations in the handbook, School Law, 2002 Edition, published by the New York State School Boards Association. The New York State Education Department Media Relations Department informed WPCNR earlier this year that the SED encourages school districts to be as accurate as possible in projecting costs for any new construction because the more accurate the estimate, because it is to the school district advantage to do so.
The City School District is presenting its case for spending $69.6 Million to build a new Post Road School, renovate Mamaroneck Avenue School, and build two new football stadiums at Highlands and Loucks Field, and $15 Million of infrastructure upgrades. Parents and citizens are being greeted with full-page advertisements and the distribution of flyers at PTA meetings. However, the question of how detailed “preliminary plans” can be before going out for a referendum has come up at various meetings on the $69.6 Million school project over the summer.
The Proposed New Post Road School fronting on Sterling Avenue on the present Post Road School site. Photo, WPCNR News
Actual legislation and policy decisions (dating back to 1951) govern how school boards can work with architects before going out for a referendum for new construction. The documents were reviewed by Don Hughes for WPCNR.
Board of Education members and the Superintendent of Schools have said the estimate of costs of school plans for the new Post Road School and Mamaroneck Avenue School renovations were subject to change with some costs seeming too high because the state does not allow detailed plans to be developed before construction is approved.
PTAs, Faculties, Administrations of Post Road, MAS Yet to Have Their Say.
It is also clear that the architect’s plans have not yet been developed in consort with all the stakeholders at each school being renovated because the architect is going to go in to Post Road School and Mamaroneck Avenue School and seek their input. These meetings will take place with the faculty, administration and parents at each school should the referendum be approved at the Special Board of Education Referendum election October 17.
Preliminary First Floor Plan for Mamaroneck Avenue School presented to MAS parents Wednesday evening. Blue area is the new 3-story addition with storage in ground floor, a new kinderarten wing on First Floor and a Music Room on Second Floor. There will also be renovations done to the cafeteria and expansion of the library and improvements to the auditorium. Photo, WPCNR News.
The Superintendent has also advised parents and school personnel of Post Road School and Mamaroneck Avenue School they — parents, administration and faculty — will have input on the final designs of their new school and renovated schools. The Superintendent indicated the plans for the new Post Road School and the Mamaroneck Avenue School may change based on individual school staff and parent input.
Inflated Estimates Critiques Dismissed as Being Compliance with State Law.
Criticisms that the estimates are “too high” have been brushed aside by Board Members falling back on “state law,” which Board members and the Superintendent have said, prohibits the school district from preparing detailed construction plans where only tight estimates are developed before voters approve the expenditure for the construction.
District Could Have Done Tight Estimates According to School Law
However, the following actual legislation governing pre-referendum plan development would appear to say the estimates can be as detailed and tight as a school district would want before they go to referendum. The only step the school board is prohibited from doing is preparing “final” plans.
Don Hughes of www.whiteplainsonline.com has researched the actual legislation governing how much a school board can go into detailed plans before going out for a referendum. Mr. Hughes has discovered what Board of Education Law permits a school district to do in preparing an estimate before any referendum.
Here is what Mr. Hughes has found:
“I have researched the School District’s contention that they may not prepare detailed plans for the proposed Post Road school until they have received voter approval of the bond issue. I was referred to “School Law” published by the New York State School Boards Association. Specifically article 16:15 which reads:
May a school district contract with an architect for the preparation of preliminary plans and specifications for a school building construction project before submitting the building project to the voters?
Yes. The school board may so contract with an architect, whose fee may legitimately be paid by the district. However, before an architect prepares final plans, voter approval must be obtained at a school district meeting, except in large city school districts (Formal Opn., of Counsel No. 1, 1 Educ. Dep’t Rep. 701 (1951)).
This appears on page 543 of the 2002 edition. The cited opinion reads:
Formal Opinions of Counsel
I have your letter of July 12, 1951, in which you ask my opinion whether a board of education of a central school district has the legal right to employ an architect to prepare plans and specifications without the necessity of presenting the matter to a school meeting and obtaining approval from such body.
In order that a school building proposition may be presented to the voters it is essential that the board have a definite proposition to present. The voters, before they are able to determine intelligently whether or not a building should be erected, must know something about the proposed building – its probable cost etc. For that reason the Department has consistently held that a board of education has full power to employ an architect for the preparation of preliminary plans. If, however, the architect is to prepare final plans it is necessary that authorization be obtained from the school meeting in order that he may do so.
Dated July 17, 1951
H. B. Ostrander
Thanks to Dave Epstein for access to the 1951 Reports.
To me, this opinion seems quite reasonable – the district may spend money to provide the voters with an accurate proposal; they may not spend money for construction plans until the project has been approved. The opinion does not preclude the district from preparing accurate detailed plans, only from preparing the final construction plans.
So, some of the costs will initially be estimates, which will change as plans are finalized and contracts are put out to bid, but this is not any different from any other large construction project.”
9 Months from approval to Construction Start.
The decision not to seek input from the schools involved about the design of the new Post Road School and the renovation of Mamaroneck Avenue School prior to the referendum, may, but not necessarily, put the School District in a time bind because they envision a tight runup to construction once the referendum is approved.
Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors said Wednesday evening addressing the Mamaroneck Avenue School PTA meeting that should the district’s voters approve the referendum to authorize $69.6 Million in spending on upgrading district buildings, work would begin on final plans for the Mamaroneck Avenue School and the new Post Road School. That would include, Connors said, the architect, Kaeyer Garment & Davidson meeting with parents, administration and faculty seeking their input on the “preliminary” design for both the new school and Mamaroneck Avenue School renovations. Photo, WPCNR News
Included in that time frame of 9 Months to prepare the final plans, Connors said to the MAS parents, would be consultation with the two sets of school stakeholders, preparation of the final plans (which could, Connors said include cost cuts eliminating certain features), and then submission the final plans to the State Education Department for approval and then go out for bids. Construction, Connors predicted would begin October, 2007, with construction of the new school and the MAS renovation completed by fall, 2009, with an outside target of fall 2010.
16 Weeks for State Education Department to Review.
Tom Dunn of the Media Relations Office of the New York State Education Department told WPCNR that the Education Department is now averaging 16 weeks to approve final plans on new school construction projects. That 16 week window is four months if the 9-month post-approval, run-up to start of construction, Mr. Connors envisions.
Earlier this month, Mr. Dunn stateed the State Education Department philosophy on estimates for new construction projects submitted for referendum and SED approval. He issued this statement:
“It does not benefit districts to just make up numbers to get approval because they will invariably be wrong and the district would not be able to do the work that was promised.
Generally the work is identified in consultation with architects and engineers, properly estimated using several acceptable methods and then a contingency factor is usually applied to cover unexpected problems and the escalation costs between the time estimates are developed, and actual construction starts.
This duration can easily be over a year, sometimes two, so the estimate needs to be projected forward (time value of money) as best as possible to ask voters for the correct amount for when it will actually need to be spent. “
The Stadiums, Parker and Loucks would be constructed beginning this coming spring, with the School District expecting both Loucks and Parker to be ready for football, soccer, lacrosse, and girls field hockey by next September.
