A glimpse of the future?

The small group of parents, administrators and school district staff who attended the Board of Education’s Public Work Session on the evening of Sept. 8, got a quick preview of preliminary drawings for proposed renovations to South Side High School — plans that will be formally presented at the school board’s Sept. 22 meeting.

“We don’t need to create the Taj Mahal,” said School Superintendent Dr. William Johnson, of the plans that grew out of work sessions over the summer involving the district’s new architectural firm, BBS Green, of Patchogue, and administrators from the district and South Side High School.

In the presentation, architect Roger Smith described the proposed plans as a multi-step process of renovations and additions to the existing building, with much of the work — a proposed new addition of six classroom spaces — taking place in the area where the school's portable classrooms are currently located.

Other highlights of the proposed project include a new fitness section off the current music room near the gym, relocating and converting the current library into chemistry labs, renovating the special education area into a life skills classroom and enlarging the art rooms to include room for storage.

By removing the portables and the garage and making the building more compact, Smith said, the proposed renovation would also result in a net gain of parking space on the high school campus — adding an estimated 60 stalls.

Smith said the issues his team attempted to address in its proposal included the design of a secure single port of entry to the school; creating more space for the school's science program; creating a "21st century library" able to adapt to change; ridding the school of aging and dilapidated portable classrooms ("If they don't leave, they become an issue"); providing fresh air and an intercom and bell system everyone in the building can hear; "right sizing" academic areas with spaces that are currently too small; improving traffic flow and circulation in the building; renovating the auditorium; meeting standards in the Americans with Disabilities Act and "thinking green."

“It’s an approach to solve all problems raised in [the Compact for Learning] report and at the same time provide a safe and secure environment," said Johnson. “I don’t see it as anything more than we need. It looks like very appropriate plain vanilla," he said, adding, “What we deal with now is alot less than what we should be giving the children.”

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