Tonight the ICSD Board of Education is expected to cast its final vote on the proposed Facilities Bond project that they will present to the public in March for a vote. The board has been meeting regularly for several months to discuss and debate projects included in the bond. The current dollar amount to do everything that is still on the table is approaching $100 million.

Many people in Ithaca, both on the Board of Education and in the community, feel that amount is too high and needs to be cut. State Aid for the facilities bond has not yet been approved but could cover up to 58 percent aid on many of the proposed projects. The district has already voted to spend $56 million on facilities maintenance projects like HVAC repairs and roof replacements.

More recently, the board has looked at a few remaining facilities projects separately, and conducted straw polls, to determine whether they would stay in the proposed bond.

The remaining projects discussed during this time include major renovations and expansions of Kulp Auditorium and the Activities Building at Ithaca High School; a new Ithaca High School gym and wellness center; athletic complex upgrades at Ithaca High School; a new gymnasium at Belle Sherman; and major renovations to Lehman Alternative Community School, including two new additions that would house a new library, three new science labs, a performing arts theatre, and a new kitchen.

Of all of those remaining projects, the only one proposed to be cut in scope and costs are the additions and renovations at LACS. The board has proposed a second conceptual drawing for LACS that drastically changes the original proposal, cutting costs 20 percent. 

Joe Greenberg, the principal, was notified of these changes only immediately prior to the last public hearing on the issue. He was not given any time to notify the LACS community of these changes in time to understand them fully, let alone offer thoughtful, public comment.

As a LACS parent for five years, I have long been aware of the limitations within the building of the school, which serves students from grade 6-12, and is housed in a former elementary school. It is not a fully functional middle and high school. It really needs the additions and renovations in the original project proposal.

The LACS library is currently housed in a windowless basement room that is dank and dark. The first conceptual drawing proposed an addition that would house a new library, centrally located within the school, which would allow LACS staff to move the computer lab to the library as well as open up space for a staff work room.

In conceptual design #2, the library would still be moved to another location, but the size would be cut nearly in half, thereby not enabling the computer lab or teacher work space. 

Another example is the need for a performing arts space. LACS produces a number of plays throughout the year but does not have adequate facilities to put on a public performance. Every time the school has a play, LACS has to negotiate borrowing space from another school. Conceptual design #1 would create a new performance arts space, while conceptual design #2 moves it to the dark and dingy basement room where the library is now. That just won't even work—the ceiling is too low to hang stage lights, let alone build a stage.    

The kitchen is another issue. LACS is the only school in the district with a student-run cafeteria. Up to fifteen students each year learn culinary and business skills, and run a profit-making enterprise. The current kitchen is the smallest one in the district and substandard for so many people to work in, plus the students have to transfer the food from the kitchen to the gym as there is no integrated service line from the kitchen. Conceptual design #2 keeps the current gym doubling as a cafeteria, thereby not really solving that problem at all.   

While understandable that the district wants to save taxpayers money, it's curious that LACS should receive such drastic cuts in the proposal—and at the last minute, just nearly at the point where public comment on this is over. Joe Greenberg was told on Tuesday that public comment at the last two special board meetings—yesterday and today—will likely be restricted to one or two people from the LACS community. 

The board of education needs to carefully consider its stand on such an important issue that will affect LACS for years to come. On behalf of current and future LACS students, most of whom spend more than half their school years in the building, the board should go ahead and approve the much needed renovations and additions to LACS as outlined in the first conceptual design.