Schools

Basilone Field Press Box to be Repaired

And the district is looking into car port solar panels at several schools.

There is no safe place to walk in the Basilone Field press box at the Bridgewater-Raritan High School—and so the board of education is looking at costs to replace it.

According to board of education vice president Patrick Breslin, there is currently no safe place to walk in the box, and it needs to have the roof and flooring replaced or repaired.

At this point, Breslin said Tuesday, the replacing of the roof and floor will cost $16,000.

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Replacing the entire box, Breslin said, could cost upwards of $100,000.

“The press box is smaller than it should be,” he said. “But if we went to a larger box arrangement, it costs [much more].”

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“We recommend at this time that the best course of action is to stick with what we have,” he added.

In efforts to save money, Breslin said, the facilities committee is considering the possibility of a second phase of solar panels on buildings, to be paid for through the county.

“Phase one went well, and we had advised the county that if there is more free stuff, we would be interested,” he said.

Solar panels had already been scheduled to be installed on Adamsville Primary School, Hamilton Primary School and the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School.

Now, Breslin said, the district, with the county, is looking into other options for the panels, namely Van Holten Primary, Milltown Primary and the high school.

“We won’t go into each one, but we are looking at the potential for them to be car port operations, rather than putting panels on the top of the buildings,” he said. “We are recommending against ground level and going for roof level additions or a parking lot canopy.”

Breslin said putting solar complexes at the ground level of the buildings creates a higher possibility of vandalism.

In addition, finance chair Lynne Hurley said they are looking into the possibility of reducing the costs for taking the advanced placement tests at the high school. In 2009 and 2010, those wanting to take the tests paid $86, and, in 2011, the costs rose to $92.

Hurley said they are looking into reducing the costs again.

“It is too late to change the costs for 2012, but we are going to see what we can do to change for next year, and maybe drop the costs by a dollar or two if we can,” she said.


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