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Southwestern School Board Discuss Construction, Preparedness

The Southwestern Central School Board held its meeting Tuesday night, where talks of construction and an emergency preparedness plan were discussed.

“Can we do this tomorrow?” quipped William Burk, board member, regarding construction needed on the exterior wall of the school’s pool area. “What are we waiting for?”

School board members expressed concerns with the safety of the pool room. Specifically, there were concerns with the condition of one exterior wall and the roof above the pool. The board was briefed on possible options it has to go about fixing the “potential hazards.”

One option is to use what is called a performance contract.

“The approval process is a little bit lengthy but the one thing that does happen is that the work does get done and the aid does flow,” Tom McElheny, who was updating the board on the construction process, said.

“The performance contract will be aided at 80 percent,” he said of state assistance. “If you take it to the voters, (the performance contract) gets aided at 90 percent.”

Whether or not the community votes to pass this “performance contract,” the school board can still go ahead with the project but at the 80 percent rate.

The process is still in the planning phase and the board tried to figure out the best possible option. The approval process was described to take about 10 weeks, McElheny said. After an initial audit by prospective companies, the board then has the power to decide which company they would prefer to hire for the construction project.

Currently, Donahue is going to be in contact with the Clark Patterson Lee architecture group to see what the school’s best option is.

Another motion passed Tuesday was a vote to allow Superintendent Maureen Donahue to sign an emergency preparedness plan. This plan would be in cooperation with Orchard Grove Residences for the 2017-18 school year. This plan is for emergencies that would require students to vacate the school property. The agreement states that the Chautauqua County Office of Emergency Management will be coordinating this process.

Other items that were passed included an audit agreement and a resolution to approve the nomination of Christine Schnars to the New York State School Boards Association Board. The audit agreement that was approved allows Buffamante Whipple Buttafaro, P.C. to manage audit services for the school year ending June 30, 2017.

The board also moved to adopt the results of the May 16 meeting that approved a budget of $27,366,108. During that meeting, the board also approved spending on new school busses and related equipment.

The school board is moving forward with their construction project and will be putting out an advertisement for potential contractors in the near future after Memorial Day.

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