I am pleased to report significant progress across the various projects in our Verona Public Schools facilities referendum plan. The renovations and modernizations are transforming our buildings. We regularly provide updates on all of our progress at Board of Education meetings. The latest presentation from September 2015 may be found on the main page of the District website or by clicking here.
Projects completed to date include mechanical system upgrades, renovation & improvements to our main offices and public access vestibules, building site improvements (i.e. sidewalks, driveways, parking lots), bleacher upgrades, exterior building door upgrades, technology & network infrastructure, and school security upgrades. Security improvements to our public access vestibules are near completion with installation of new access control and monitoring features.
Our Energy Savings Improvement Program (ESIP) will provide improvements to our facilities and reduce operating costs/consumption of energy. These improvements are 100% funded via the cost savings we attain with no taxpayer effect.
The Verona High School music room addition is experiencing a slight delay. During site excavation, the engineers determined that the consistency of the soil was not suitable for the construction of the new foundation. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the existing soil and replace it with suitable fill.
Soil must be tested whenever it is removed from a site. The tests of our soil found low-level presence of lead and nickel. The engineers have declared that the soil is not harmful. Nonetheless, the soil will be removed and disposed of at an approved landfill. We are in the process of obtaining all necessary and appropriate certifications for soil disposal. We are expediting this as quickly as possible as any project delays affect our students and staff. The costs associated with this issue are fully covered in our referendum contingency reserves, which are prepared specifically for this sort of unexpected event.
The multipurpose field project includes improvements to the tennis courts and both upper and lower athletic fields at Verona High School. Final approval for the tennis courts project has been obtained from the Verona Planning Board and that project is being scheduled for completion for Summer 2016.
Final revised plans for the upper and lower fields were submitted to the Verona Planning Board for review last week. This project will include remediation of the upper field with synthetic turf and lights, and synthetic turf for the lower fields. We anticipate Verona Planning Board review in January 2016 and then we can submit the fields and tennis courts projects to bid and define the construction schedule.
The remaining referendum projects will improve our heating and ventilation infrastructure at VHS, renovate the VHS cafeteria kitchen, and complete necessary masonry repairs. These projects are on schedule for Summer 2016. We will continue to provide updates at our public Board of Education meetings and notices like this one in the coming months.
