By Thomas J. McKillen
Managing Editor

The Hamilton School Board gave the go-ahead to administration Jan. 16 to seek contracts for bidding on additions at two elementary schools.
The board approved contracts with Plunkett Raysich to develop architecture and engineering documents and with JP Cullen for construction management documents for additions to Woodside and Marcy elementary schools. The documents will be used to seek bids for the work.
District spokesperson Denise Dorn Lindberg said it is hoped the bids will be ready to be issued in March and the board could take final actions on the bids by May.  The additions will be funded through the district maintenance budget in the operating budget.
Lindberg said the construction will occur over years  in conjunction with the district maintenance budget. She indicated that construction at the Woodside addition would likely begin first, since that school is using temporary building space that is being allowed for now by the village of Sussex. Sussex officials have indicated they would not support an extension to continue the use of the temporary space.
Both Marcy and Woodside are exceeding capacity, with  680 students at Woodside for a facility designed for 600 students where there are 525 students at Marcy, which was designed for 500 students. During a committee meeting a week earlier, Superintendent Kathleen Cooke noted that special education services were moved out of Marcy this year to open up space at the building.

A different process
Even a lower profile item such as developing a school calendar was affected by the state budget bill.
The bill placed limits on what could be covered through the collective bargaining process with state employees. For school districts, one change was that the school calendar — which was subject to negotiations between school districts and teaching staff — are now entirely at the discretion of school districts.
Lindberg said administration asked the School Board for what parameters to be used in developing a calendar. Based on board input, Lindberg said the administration will go to instructional leaders and teaching staff to get input .
The parameters supported by the board include a calendar that has 180 student contract days, 192 teacher contract days, traditional break times, early release for professional development, days set aside for teaching staff to prepare and close out classrooms and parent teacher conferences.
Under state law, the earliest  school districts will be able to start school will be Sept. 4, which could result in the school year extending to the second week of June in 2012.
“We will be considering ways to avoid this late ending date if possible,” Director of Human Resources and Organizational Development John Roubik said in a memo to the board.