The Massapequa School District is currently working on plans for the eventual reopening of the Ames School as a 9th grade center. Because of an increase in enrollment at Berner, the district is seeking a way to relieve the crowded junior high school. The project would also allow Berner to receive middle school status rather than its current classification as a junior high.

The Ames building is currently rented by Nassau BOCES.

But, as the district works out the plans for a possible buildings and grounds bond issue for August, the question of how to pay for the Ames building renovation surfaces.

Currently, the district has stated that there is asbestos in the ceiling of the building's gymnasium which needs to be removed before students are moved into the building.

"We would not bring youngsters into there until the asbestos is removed and the tiles are fixed," said Superintendent James Brucia.

But other concerns raised in respect to the project center around how to pay for the project and when to reopen the school.

According to Brucia, the latest possible date by which the building can be open is Sept. 2001. But the district hopes to have the building in use earlier than that. Brucia said that any time later would require temporary classrooms be set up outside of Berner Junior High to handle the increase in enrollment.

Trustee C. Richard Sorvillo argued that he would not want to see such an event occur. "I personally don't want to see the kids getting stuck while we try to do a project and it doesn't get finished," said Sorvillo.

"We really don't have a good track record of completing projects," he added.

The cost estimates for removing the asbestos in the building is $2 million. But one of the problems that the district faces is that, to date, the district does not have the money available in the budget to fund the project. The district's available fund balance is $1.2 million.

The district's current plans for the building includes using less than $1 million dollars for the preliminary costs for reopening the Ames building, while incorporating the remainder of the project into a major bond issue that the district still hasn't worked out. In the event that the larger bond issue is rejected by the voters, the district would put forward a smaller bond issue 60 days later to address the costs for the Ames Building.

"The worst case scenario would be that the major bond issue fails in August and the smaller bond issue fails 60 days later," said Brucia.

In such an event the cost for the project would have to come out of the operating budget.

"The Ames project will need to be included in the bond issue," said Board President Robert Thompson. "The taxpayers will not be able to support a multi-million dollar project out of the budget."

In addition to the costs for the asbestos removal, the district also needs to spend close to $500,000 for furniture and, what Brucia called, "odds and ends."

Another major cost to the district will be the loss of revenue from Nassau BOCES. Under the agreement with BOCES and the district, BOCES pays $600,000 to the district and agrees to maintain the building. When the district decides to reclaim the Ames building for a new 9th grade center, the district would loose the revenue provided by BOCES.

Origionally the district was considering putting a small bond issue on the ballot in May to cover the costs for the Ames building. However ER&M, the public relations firm hired by the district to promote the passage of the "yet to be determined" bond issue advised that such an action might cause the rejection of the larger bond issue by the voters.