Finance Board Rejects $52 Million East Hampton High School Renovation

The Board of Finance has rejected a resolution to authorize the proposed a move that sends the proposal back to the school building committee for revisions.

The finance board voted 5-2 against the project, with most of those opposed complaining that its price tag was too high. But during discussion following the vote several of the members who opposed the project said they would back it, key support needed to send the project to referendum, if two components of it are removed.

The board members want a nearly $900,000 proposal to move the Board of Education offices into the renovated high school eliminated, as well as a proposal to install outdoor lighting for the school's athletic fields.

Several board members said that while they still were not happy with the overall cost of the project, they would be willing to send it along to voters if those sections were removed.

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The board's decision to vote down the project drew the ire of residents and other town officials who attended the standing-room only meeting in the high school library.

"I am not a happy camper right now," said Board of Education Chairman Mark Laraia. Laraia said he was led to believe the finance board intended to approve the school project so that the residents could vote on it at a referendum. "I'm very disappointed in this process. The Board of Finance has put the  accreditation of the high school at risk."

Residents turned out in force to support the project, which would cost the town $26 million after state reimbursement is factored in. They implored the finance board to approve it, even if they had reservations about the plan, so that the public could also have a chance to vote on it.

“We really just want the community to have the opportunity to vote,” said Thom Cordeiro, a former member of the Town Council who now heads up a political action committee formed to support the renovation plan. “We know it’s a huge number but it’s an opportunity for East Hampton to do something great.”

Others argued that if the town does not undertake a renovation of the high school it risks losing the accreditation of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which issued a report noting deficiencies in the school’s science and math department spaces.

Losing accreditation, some said, could threaten property values in town because families will not want to move here and send their children to the high school.

“One thing we can’t lose sight of is that it will benefit all the residents of the town of East Hampton,” said Mark Lambert of Brookside Court. “If we don’t get an accredited high school, the decline in property values will far exceed (the project’s costs) if we don’t have an accredited high school.”

One biology teacher told the board that the conditions in the school’s science labs in particular “are abysmal.”

About 90 people packed into the high school library, many of them in support of the project.

The only person in the audience to speak against the project was Donald Cooligan, who said that while he agrees that the high school needs to be renovated, he doesn’t support the current proposal.

“What we have here is a $52 million project, all of it on borrowed money, and when we’re done we’ll have a lot of nice stuff, but we’ll have less classroom space, less lab space and a gym.”

The board members who voted against the plan also said they were concerned that the school's costs are too high and that many in town would not be able to afford it.

While some called the proposal a "Cadillac" plan, finance board Chairman Matthew Walton said it was more like a "Mercedes Benz."