By REBECCA SHALOMOFF
Urging people to attend the forums - from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, Wednesday, Jan. 17 and Thursday, Jan 25, in Cafeteria A of the Lawrence Middle School, 195 Broadway - the Building Committee said it will use community input and feedback to complete its Master Plan.
"The Master Plan reflects all the imaginable needs of the district at this time," said Robert Douglas, chairman of the Building Committee, which comprises a cross-section of residents, school officials and parents of students. "It is the most comprehensive plan that has ever been done."
The committee has met periodically over a year and a half to determine the structural and educational needs of the district's seven buildings and fields as well as the cost of programs. They assessed what problems need immediate attention, such as roof repairs, and things they would like to see improved, such as playgrounds at the elementary schools.
When formulating the plan, Douglas said the committee took into consideration the needs of the entire District 15 community, public and non-public school-goers.
"There is a genuine interest in maximizing the experience of how to best deliver services to public-school students and to what extent we can further the needs of non-public-school students by developing buildings and programs that everyone can use," Douglas said.
For example, everyone in the community could benefit from improved and increased recreational facilities, an up-to-date driver education program and modernized computer labs.
If the plan is put into effect, Lawrence students, from elementary to high school, would be able to take advantage of an air-conditioned building during the warmer months, upgrade food service and improved science labs and art rooms.
Douglas said that the goal of the Master Plan is to make each school building equally modernized and structurally sound.
The cost of such ambition is estimated at about $85 million, to be funded almost entirely from a district bond, with some help from state aid and the district's capital reserve and operation fund. A $85 million bond would cost the district's average homeowner between $130 and $250 or more per year. The bond will be paid out over 15 to 20 years.
Different from the $40 million bond that was voted down by the school board last year, the $85 million plan encompasses improvements for the entire district, not just the high school. It would include a fitness center at the middle school and at the high school.
But the bond proposal is not bound to the estimated cost of the comprehensive plan. A final cost of the plan will depend on community input and school-board response.
In the Hewlett-Woodmere community, an $85 million bond was voted down and a pared-down $22.6 million bond was then approved for district improvements.
"The committee concluded that this issue will define in large measure how the community defines themselves in the future," Douglas said. "It really becomes a defining moment for the Lawrence School District community."
Once the building committee completes its final report, the board of education will determine at the end of January a bond referendum to fund the project. Public voting on the bond would then take place in March.
Frank Argento, board president, said, "[The Building Committee] worked extremely hard and the board is proud of what they've done. The board is going to need feedback from the community to make a good decision."
