An architectural firm and Arlington Central School District officials are investigating how to get an expansion of Arlington High School done and what such a project should entail.
Clark Patterson Associates of Rochester has been working with the district for the last eight months.
John Patterson, executive vice president of Clark Patterson, said at a Board of Education meeting in Vail Farm Elementary School on June 14 that they are working on plans to expand the high school, as well as potentially build a new school bus garage facility. Patterson said they are also examining technology uses and upgrades at each of the district’s nine elementary schools.
“We’re trying to determine what’s included,” said Patterson, who works out of the firm’s Hudson Valley office in Newburgh. “We’re now starting to have weekly meetings with the administration.”
Bob Markarian, assistant superintendent of technology and library services for the district, said he is working for Superintendent Frank Pepe Jr. to manage the potential project. A new bus garage, he said, is part of the district’s capital improvement plan.
“The (current) bus garage is on Arlington Middle School’s property,” Markarian said. “It would be kept as a satellite garage for that part of the district.”
Board of Education President Kelly Lappan said she would like to understand what decisions are being made as the administration and the firm work on the expansion plan. She said she would like discussions at Board of Education meetings on the plan’s status.
Pepe said the Board of Education wanted him to develop a high school expansion program and report back this fall on the type of construction and a cost figure.
Such a project, Pepe said, would require a district-wide referendum. The target date for a referendum on a high school expansion is during the 2005-06 winter months, if the board finds a proposed plan acceptable.
He added that permanent administration office space is under consideration as well as some repairs to all of the district’s schools.
“The Board of Education has approved nothing at this time, and no dollar amount (for the work) has been set,” Pepe said.
In September of 2004, he said, the enrollment at Arlington High School exceeded its “functional capacity,” which is 2,800 students. The functional capacity, Pepe said, is the enrollment level plus a small allotment for unexpected additional students.
At the start of the 2004-05 school year, the high school’s enrollment was 3,169, 131 students below the maximum capacity of 3,300 students.