The Harvard School Committee Monday dropped requests for $4.3 million in capital funding to completely rebuild the kindergarten wing of Hildreth Elementary School.
School Committee member Keith Cheveralls explained that the request was based on a misreading—for which he took responsibility, Cheveralls said—of the 2005 memorandum of understanding between the Board of Health and the School Committee. Cheveralls said that the memorandum had provided a set of criteria for remedying problems in the kindergarten wing, to be completed in 2006. The memo further provided that, if the criteria were met, the school building could remain in use for at least 10 years.
The key phrase in the misunderstanding was “at least.” With many personnel changes both in school administration and on the School Committee since 2006, the impression arose that the agreement was set to expire in 2016, requiring replacement of the wing, Cheveralls said. But the 10-year measure was a minimum, not a maximum, for use of the kindergarten wing.
In fact, Cheveralls said, no data supports the need to rebuild. Mary Zadroga, administrative assistant to the superintendent, reported that the most recent tests for mold or other problems in the kindergarten wing showed nothing significant.
“It makes no sense to have a building cost on [the capital request sheet] when we have no building plans,” School Committee Chair SusanMary Redinger concluded. The rest of the committee concurred, and two requests related to the kindergarten wing were dropped.
Other capital requests that remain on the school’s wish list for the Capital Planning and Investment Committee are $175,000 to repave the parking lot behind the Bromfield School, and $29,000 to make a handicapped-accessible entrance to the lower level of Bromfield, where Harvard Cable TV will one day be housed.
The parking lot proposal was worked out in discussions among Redinger, Selectman Tim Clark, and Department of Public Works head Rich Nota. The plan includes several new paved pedestrian paths to allow people to walk down Pond Road or along the parking lot without being in the midst of traffic.
