The Board of Education held its latest budget work session this past Thursday, April 2 at Garden City High School. The main topic of the night was the replacement of the middle school's south gymnasium roof and the repair of the parapets. Other subjects pertaining to the 1998 budget were discussed as well.

The Board's presentations of its proposed 1998-99 district budget have recently been interrupted by parents' concerns that the Garden City Middle School gymnasium roof is in desperate need of repair. Parents stated that immediate action needed to take place to provide their children with an appropriate space for state mandated physical eductaion.

Students at the school currently are unable to participate in physical education activities on days when the weather does not permit outdoor play on the middle school's leased playing field.

What is the estimated cost to fix the roof? "The estimation to replace the roof and repair the parapets will be anywhere from $175,000 to $200,000. This includes all exterior work, but no interior work," stated Superintendent Dr. Lee Wilson. The statement that no interior work is currently planned raised concerns with parents who stated that because of water leaks through the damaged roofs, the flooring in the gym has severely buckled.

All members of the Board expressed their unanimous support for the replacement of the roof. The question then became how soon can the construction begin, and how long will it take to complete? "First of all we need to wait for approval from the state, then we would put the contract up for bid. We would like to begin construction by the summer, but the only problem is the summer time is a busy time for contractors," said Board Trustee Jim Ryan. The idea, according to the board, is to start construction in the summer so that the roof will be completed no later than the fall when students return to school.

While the Board unanimously agreed to support the roof replacement for the middle school, the discussion regarding the lack of space for special education students in Stratford School remains without a unified agreement on a resolution. Some suggestions made by Garden City residents in attendance included relocating these students to other schools such as Homestead and Hemlock, two of the district's three K-1 schools. Another suggestion was to invest in more trailer classrooms or portables like the ones currently in use by the district. The Board tabled the discussion and moved on.

This year the expansion of the computer program began and was to be followed annually with greater expansion. With pressing financial needs, like replacing the roof at the middle school, next year's computer program has taken a hit. This past school year, Garden City 5th-graders have had the privilege of having five computers installed per classroom. All the computers are equipped with updated programs and access to the Internet.

Dr. Wilson had planned to expand the program to both the 4th and 6th grade. The present resolution is to cut the expansion of the computer program to the 4th-graders. The board will expand the computer program to only the 6th-graders, because they did not want to discontinue the development of those 5th-graders who have already had a year with computers in their classrooms.

Dr. Wilson also addressed the issue of upgrading the district's computers. "The computers we have right now are Compaq computers and they are five to six years old. We want to have three Compaq computers and add two Penteum II computers to each classroom," explained Wilson. He also said that he would like to replace the high school computer labs, which also have Compaq computers, with Penteum II computers.

Each computer would cost about $1,600, but because of the state contract, there would be a 25 percent discount. That would bring the price down to about $1,300.

Board Trustee Linda Leone argued, "Why do we need new computers if the computers we have now do the same thing?" Wilson responded, "The Compaqs are getting older and are too slow to run the programs that are out there today."

Leone, expressing concern about the possible costs, asked what the estimated amount would be to finance Dr. Wilson's proposal. Wilson calculated that the estimated cost would be approximately $130,000.

This estimation included the following: five computers in each of the 12 6th-grade classrooms, two computers in each of the 5th-grade classrooms, two computers in each of the special education classrooms, an additional computer in each classroom for the teacher, 27 computers for the high school computer labs, and 40 hours of computer training for the teachers.

"The installment of wiring and cables in the middle school would not need to have ceilings or walls removed. Each classroom can be wired individually. All this work can be done by in-house personal for about $7,500," said Wilson.

Many of the parents at the meeting vocalized their endorsement of the installation of more computers within the classroom setting. One parent said "I have a daughter in 5th-grade and she teaches her older sister how to use a computer. It's a wonderful program, and it's done so much for her."

The Board's final decision was to expand computers to only the 6th-grade classrooms. They plan to monitor the success of the program and determine whether or not to continue the program and possibly fund the replacement of the Compaqs with Pentiums. The Board is also looking into further expansion of computers to 7th-and 8th-graders.

The Board canceled the next budget meeting originally scheduled for Monday, April 6 and have rescheduled for Monday, April 20 at 8:00 p.m. in Garden City High School's cafeteria. This will be the final budget meeting before the scheduled April 28 budget adoption by the Board and the May budget vote.