Freeport renovation vote set for May 14
BUFFALO TWP — Freeport Area School District families will have an answer on the high school’s future by mid-May.
Gary Risch Jr., Freeport’s school board president, said the school board will vote on which renovation plan to go with at the board’s May 14 meeting.
Previous reporting shows the board had initially planned to vote at its March meeting. Recently, the board has discussed details of the renovation projects at numerous committee meetings, such as the building and finance committees.
Risch said when the board votes on which renovation option to go with, they will also be voting on other capital projects that will occur over the course of the next five to seven years. This would include a roofing project, track and field maintenance, and others.
There are currently three options in place: the large-scale renovation that would cost around $55 million; a smaller-scale renovation that would cost roughly $22 million; or no renovation at all.
All three options will be on the May 14 board agenda.
Risch said that, in addition to abolishing the building committee, he hopes to have an open dialogue throughout April on the topic.
Committee meetings will be held April 2 and May 7, where time will be set aside for further discussion with the public on the building project.
“In the end, the board is going to make a decision, I plan on May 14 having all three project proposals on the agenda for this board to have a vote on,” Risch said.
Some board members, such as Risch and Christine Davies, were in agreement that the existing building needs fixes to be made, and that zero renovation is not a good option.
“There can be no zero option,” board member Christine Davies said. “For the sake of this building, things are gonna have to be fixed.”
Previously, there had been little public comment from board members on which option to go with. At a previous meeting, board member Dino DiGiacobbe expressed a desire to focus on other district financial needs before spending on a renovation project.
The May 14 vote will mark the end of several years of discussion and planning on the potential high school renovation.
“I’m putting a timeline on this, and we’re going to make a decision one way or the other. If we’re going to do nothing, if we’re doing the middle, I’ve been dealing with this for four years, and there’s been a lot of work on this board on where we’re at and where we need to be, I think it behooves us and we owe it to the public to make a decision on where we’re at. And I owe it to this board to put it on the agenda,” Risch said.
