Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee to Meet
The Huntington School District's Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee will hold its final meeting on Wednesday, June 22 at 7 p.m. in the Huntington High School library. The meeting is open to the public.
Huntington School Board members created the committee on June 7, 2010. The members include a cross-section of the district and community. Roger Smith, a principal in the architectural firm, Burton Behrendt Smith, has been acting as the facilitator of the panel.
The committee's voting members include John J. Finello, David Grackin, Joe Giani, Kenneth Card, Michelle Marino, Margaret Evers, Marlon Small, Marsha Neville, Mary Stokkers, Jarrett Stein, John Amato, Carmela Leonardi, Julissa Garris-Shade, Karen Fischer, Joanne Cicio, Georganne White, Laraine Schirripa, Diane Grassi, Michele Kustera, Cathy Ribando, Jeanine Mulroy, Jennifer Herbert, Patrick Giles, Paul Eidle, Carrie Nicodem, Kevin Thourborne, Don Kiley, Jennifer Casey, Crystal White, Barbara Wanamaker and Richard Oehmler.
The committee's non-voting members include Paul Rispoli, Georgia McCarthy, Christine Bene and John P. Paci III. Mr. Smith is also a non-voting member along with three other architects/engineers from BBS.
Trustees charged the committee with analyzing the district's long term elementary level facilities needs and possible solutions, "including discussions of availability, functionality and [the] costs of various building options." The committee has considered existing, previously owned and potentially new school buildings, along with additions and alterations to present structures as possible solutions to a shortage of space.
Over the course of its first five meetings, committee members decided against recommending the creation of two middle schools or two intermediate schools (grades 4-6). Also ruled out was adding another grade level to J. Taylor Finley Middle School, construction of an entirely new building or the reacquisition of either Toaz or Town Hall. The committee said it wants to keep the four primary buildings intact.