AUBURN - A group of Auburn Enlarged City School District leaders went line by line Tuesday on the existing five-year capital improvement plan, sifting through items with a priority one designation that might be incorporated in a future capital project.

The board of education's Long Range Planning Committee met to discuss what repairs, upgrades and additions the district needs in the coming years to maintain building standards and provide a healthy environment for student learning.

Superintendent J.D. Pabis and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds Larry Garuccio walked committee chair Sam Giangreco, members Michael Stearns and Karol Soules and Business Administrator Marianne O'Connor through what they felt was necessary for the district, adding items that buildings could not do without while removing others that are unnecessary at the moment.

Nearly all of the items discussed during the hour-long meeting dealt exclusively with infrastructure, from exterior windows and doors to air ventilators and hot water tanks.

Pabis and Garuccio also said that upgrading the district's technology infrastructure was vital to day-to-day operations, such as improving the telephone system and installing overhead projectors in every classroom. Such upgrades are already in the works, embedded within the 2006 capital project.

“We've already started that and you don't stop now,” Garuccio said. “You don't start to get your infrastructure in and upgrading, you don't stop in the middle.”

The committee asked Pabis and Garuccio, in consultation with Clerk of the Works Fred Marciano, to go through the capital improvement plan during a meeting in August. During that meeting, the committee discussed the fate of its near $15.7 million capital project put on hold in May after voters first defeated the proposed 2008-09 school budget. The board intended to put before voters in June a five-year project dealing with school infrastructure, energy efficiency and technology, and renovations to Holland Stadium, including the installation of synthetic turf.

While the committee ultimately decided that extensive renovations to Holland Stadium and the installation of turf was not possible at this time, Garuccio said work must be done to repair the concrete crumbling inside the stadium on the East Middle School campus.

Garuccio also designated the standard maintenance of the high school soccer and baseball fields as a priority one, but Pabis said all fields will be scrutinized to make sure each are safe for use.

One thing Pabis made clear Tuesday was that costs for items that made up the postponed capital project will not be the same for a future project.

“One of the things we have to be very cognizant of, in looking at the estimated project costs, these were developed in 2008 with a 10 percent increment shooting for 2009,” he said. “Those figures will no longer hold true because of the escalation in any of the petroleum products, copper products, steel products, transportation issues. So those numbers are no longer a benchmark.”

Pabis said he will approach SWBR Architects, the firm with which the district contracts, to discuss what the priority ones would cost.

In the coming weeks and months, the committee will decide if there will be a new capital project, tentative date for a vote and the project's scope. But initial responses from the members indicated that a capital project is necessary and possible in the next few years.

“I don't see how you can not have a capital project,” Soules said. “These things are not going to go away and they are only going to get worse.”

Stearns said that the economy is going to ultimately dictate if and when the district puts forward a new capital project, but at the least the board will have all the information on the table to make a decision.

The committee will meet at 5 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Harriet Tubman Administration Building to move forward with such discussions.

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net