December 15, 2023
ARKPORT, NY – On Wednesday evening, the Arkport Board of Education met for their monthly meeting. The meeting started with a presentation from the Senior Class President about their Senior Trip. The trip will take place between May 1st and May 3rd, and the group will go to New York City; 25 out of the 33 students in the class will be attending.
Next, Day Automation, the holders of Arkport CSD’s Energy Performance Contract, gave a presentation on what they had been working on with the school and how their projects have been going. In 2022, the first year they began working for Arkport, the school saved $48,267 on their energy bill, and they expect to have additional savings in 2023. These savings came from lighting upgrades and the controls and mechanics of the electricity in the school system; the upgrades have also saved 206,025 kilowatt hours of energy per year, which is equivalent to driving a car for 764,000 miles.
The main part of the meeting was a presentation from LaBella, who is doing the Building Condition Survey and related upgrades for the school district on behalf of the state. The original survey took place in 2022 and involved building and site walkthroughs, which include a visual inspection, deficiency identification, and prioritization of survey items. Different repairs and maintenance items were listed as low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, and high priorities.
The bus garage had two high priority items, those being to mill and pave the parking lot and replace overhead doors. The bus garage also had several medium priority maintenance items, which include repairing joints and cracks in sidewalks, adding plow and palette racking, and installing conduits for electric bus and car charging stations.
The athletic fields had one maintenance issue that is high priority, which is to replace the electrical panel in the concession stand. Additionally, the idea of adding two conduits to the press box and concession stand was discussed, as well as replacing fence fabric at the softball and baseball backstops and replacing the soccer dugouts.
The school had most of the maintenance projects, which makes sense given the relative size compared to the bus garage and athletic fields. High priority projects include repairing the sidewalk along East Ave, replacing the roof in the first grade wing, replacing the PAC boiler burners, relocating piping from the crawl space in the basement to the first floor ceiling, upsizing the school’s electrical capacity, replacing the elevator car, and buying a generator for the building with two Automatic Transfer Switches.
The school also had several medium-high maintenance projects that were outlined by LaBella. Included in these are the idea to install a rubber play surface at the playground to eliminate the tripping hazard, extending the cafeteria loading dock, reconstructing the library and locker rooms, installing interior directional signage, replacing the carpet in the kindergarten wing with vinyl tile, updating the finishes in the band room, sanding and refinishing the PAC and gym floors, replacing the LED sign at the front of the school, adding new fire alarms/smoke detectors/carbon monoxide detectors, and replacing the microphones, projector, and sound system in the PAC.
Eli Marcus was appointed as the 7-12 principal at the meeting, filling the vacancy that had existed previously.
Also, the plan for the solar eclipse that will take place on April 8, 2024, was discussed. Superintendent Jesse Harper suggested a half-day for safety, as NYS is concerned about Route 36. If the school doesn’t use any snow days this year, they may decide to use the snow day on that day.