Building project is part of June 6 vote

FALLS VILLAGE — At the public hearing on the regional budget held last Wednesday, April 6, Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick and architect Al Jacunski explained why the upgrades are needed and what they will cost.

Herrick was helped in his presentation by a video put together by Housatonic Valley Regional High School students as part of the Civic Life documentary film program at the high school. 

The video can be seen online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZfuPpTpaMQ; a link is provided on the Region One School District website at www.region1schools.org.

The renovation has three major components, all of which address areas of the school that are grossly out of date.

A key area is the science classrooms, which haven’t been updated since the 1960s. It isn’t just that the surfaces and equipment in the rooms are worn down and failing. The labs were built for a style of science education that has fallen out of favor: lecture-based learning as opposed to hands-on investigation.

The student video shows science department Chair Nur Abdulhayoglu pointing out how much the world and the study of science have changed since the 1960s.

The locker rooms are also on the list of areas to be upgraded. Again, they date from the 1960s (the high school was built in the 1930s). The student film shows the degraded, discolored tiles on the walls, and showers built in an era when there were no privacy dividers between the shower heads. All the students bathed together in one open area.

The showers are rarely used by students these days.

The school’s two aging and inefficient boilers need to be replaced. During the past winter, only one could be used. 

“Fortunately, it was a warm winter,” Herrick said. 

Jacunski said that the original plans were more ambitious, and the project would have cost $6.7 million.

The plans were revised four times, and the new estimate is $5.7 million. He said that the state is likely to reimburse the school district as much as 50 percent of that cost, but the money has to be spent before the state will write any checks.

If the plan is approved, construction will begin in June 2017, after the designs are finalized and approved by the state. The goal is to finish in time for the beginning of school in 2018.

A public hearing on the building project will be held Monday, May 2, at 6 p.m. at the high school.

The regional referendum on the building project will be on Monday, June 6, between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the town halls in all six regional towns: Canaan (Falls Village), Cornwall, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon.

The vote was originally scheduled for May 3, the same day as the vote on the Region One budget. A new date had to be scheduled because of state “noticing” regulations.