The Mamaroneck School District may be facing up to $45 million in capital improvements after the results of a five-year building condition survey came back earlier this year from LAN Associates.

The survey—part of New York State’s mandated five-year capital facilities plan—identifies buildings, heating/cooling and electrical systems that may be in need of repair and could potentially present health or safety issues to students and faculty. The district’s building committee—comprised of past and current board of education members, residents and school personnel—is charged with making recommendations to the board of education about which repairs should be completed, and in what order.

The committee divided the $45 million in repairs into three categories in descending order of urgency. The greatest amount, $25 million, was allotted to category one, which represents the repairs that are needed the most; category two had $16.5 million and category three had $3.7 million.

“We really thought that was a large number [$25 million] to bring to the board of education during these challenging times, so we went back and said ‘let’s come up with 1a,’” said Meryl Rubinstein, the district’s assistant superintendent for business operations, referring to a sub-category of the district’s most necessary repairs.

Included in category 1a were bathrooms suffering from aged pipes at Chatsworth, Mamaroneck and Murray Avenue Schools.  In order to forestall future repairs, the committee recommended that the bathrooms in question be fully renovated.

Other schools like Central, Chatsworth, Mamaroneck and Murray Avenue Schools have electrical issues that need to be addressed.

“The driving force is safety,” said Rubinstein, adding that overloaded circuits and old wiring original to some of the buildings could present a hazardous situation.

The district also plans to start giving all schools wireless capabilities by installing Ethernet and wireless transmitters.   Currently, the only schools that are wireless are Mamaroneck High School and Hommocks Middle School.

Other category 1a infrastructure repairs, by school, are as follows:

Chatsworth Avenue School

• Exterior work
• Fix water infiltration problems at the south wall gym and interior water damage at the south wall sky gym.
• Repair of the small retaining wall that runs the entire length of the playground on Addison Street and part of Chatsworth Avenue.

Mamaroneck Avenue School

• Large sections of a retaining wall are falling out and are in dire need of repair.  In order to be more cost efficient, the recommendation is to make the stairs near the wall slope down at a 45 degree angle, leaving less retaining wall.  The remaining wall would be built with pre-fabricated concrete blocks, which are more economical and can be quickly installed as opposed to reinforced concrete wall with stone veneer. 
• The stairs leading up to the auditorium are wobbling and shifting, causing a safety issue.  Over the summer, one of the steps was removed and a temporary step was installed.
• Replacing non-code compliant fire doors and installing a new one in the southwest stair tower.
• Water infiltration through the foundation walls; the recommendation is to install new pipes to mitigate the infiltration. 

Mamaroneck High School

• Parapet wall at Pace Auditorium needs repair.

The total proposed cost for category 1a repairs is $10.2 million, including $8 million for construction costs and $2.2 million for legal counsel and contingency among other things.