Dear Putnam Valley Community:
We are taking a quick break from the topic that is on all of our minds to provide a very exciting update regarding our upcoming facilities project. During the last Board of Education meeting, a resolution was passed authorizing the award of contracts to the qualified companies as determined by our facilities bid process. Our project received a great deal of interest from prospective contractors and we received over 80 bid proposals. After analyzing the bid results and meeting with each prospective contractor we were thrilled to be able to award all of our base bids and remain within our budget.
Now that contracts have been awarded, we will quickly begin to see some action on the High School/Middle School (HS/MS) campus. In the next few weeks you should start to see contractors’ staging areas go up and fencing installed around the construction zones. Additionally, a road will be built adjacent to the HS/MS driveway to provide access to the construction area behind the high school gym.
Before any contractor arrives on campus they will meet with our construction manager, Triton Construction to be fully briefed on the rules and responsibilities of working on school grounds. We have been notified that each contractor is known to both our architects and construction manager and that each company has extensive experience working within and around public schools. Each construction worker is vetted, required to wear identifiable clothing and a security badge and will never have unauthorized access to our school buildings.
Like any construction project there will be some disruptions to our normal operations. More information will arrive in the near future outlining temporary changes to our dismissal process and our traffic pattern on the HS/MS campus. We anticipate these changes will impact arrival and dismissal and request your patience and flexibility. We have plans in place to isolate different areas of the middle school to allow construction to begin in the spring in order to allow for a timely completion of that phase of the project before school opens in September. While we anticipate that there will be minor disruptions to our current operations, we remain committed to ensuring that we maintain a safe environment that is conducive to learning.
We expect a substantial amount of the work to be completed at the middle and elementary schools by the time schools open in the fall. The Health and Wellness Center is scheduled to be completed in January.
The project includes the following highlights:
Elementary School – creation of new innovative learning spaces and upgrades to existing auditorium/all purpose space, addition of AC in auditorium
Middle School – creation of modern learning commons, renovation and expansion of kitchen and cafeteria, bathroom renovations near cafeteria and in locker rooms, addition of music lesson rooms, additional flexible classroom space, building upgrades-new windows throughout, HVAC improvements, upgrades to gymnasium, upgrades to entrance way, signage and installation of new entry canopy
High School/Middle School campus – creation of a Health and Wellness Center (to be used for Interscholastic sports: modified, Junior Varsity, Varsity, MS recess, HS classes; Physical Education, Physics, Health etc., and community youth athletic programs)
As I have said before, some of this work will certainly push us out of our comfort zones. Thank you in advance as we all work together to accept these challenges. We can all look forward to these improvements to the Putnam Valley Central School upon completion of this project.
Thank you,
Dr. Jeremy Luft
Superintendent of Schools