Office Space to Become Classrooms at Half Projected Cost, Without Debt

The Monday approved a resolution that saved the school district about half the estimated cost of converting the former central office space into four classrooms at and avoided the need to issue debt to get the project done.

Board president Arthur Levine called awarding a bid to Stone Creek Inc. to complete the construction portion of the renovations “really good news” and asked business administrator Cheryl Balletto to explain, saying, “Why don’t you share with the public in terms of the renovation of the space and what we’re not going to have to do?”

Balletto obliged, saying the renovations were originally projected to cost $1.5 million.

“Last week we opened the bid; we had about 12 bidders, which was great competition,” Balletto said. “So the resolution you see on tonight to Stone Creek is $780,000 roughly—pretty much half of what the estimated cost would be.”

In fact, Stone Creek’s base bid was $779,600, with an “alternate” portion in the amount of $4,455 to build a wheelchair-accessible ramp, bringing the total to $784,055.

“We thought if we didn’t have enough money, obviously we wouldn’t do [the ramp],” Balletto told Patch after the BOE’s regular business meeting. “But we do have enough money so we’re doing it.”

Earlier in the meeting Balletto had said the contractor’s bid was so much lower than anticipated, it allowed the board to approve an accompanying budget transfer to pay for the project.

“At the last board meeting, we had a public hearing on financing the debt for that project,” Balletto reminded members of the public. “But due to the fact that do we have money this year, along with the payment we already budgeted for this year, we can fund this project without issuing debt for it.”

Board member Charlie Luppino chastised those in attendance at the auditorium because “not one word was said about [the significant savings].”

“Something of such great magnitude in that the pricing was half of what we estimated it to be, and not one person in our audience notices,” Luppino said. “I think that’s shameful.”

He said the board and administration work “very hard,” and that “what we’re trying to do is better for our district.”

“I want to commend the board,” Luppino said. “I want to commend the administrators for doing such a great job getting this renovation started and up and going.”

He added, “We should stay tight and stay together and pull off the rest of this referendum with great anticipation of saving this town some money.”