WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee will give a positive recommendation to the full City Council tomorrow night for an appropriation of $114,200 to purchase three vehicles for the Westfield Vocational Technical High School.
School Department Chief Financial Officer Ron Rix presented the proposed appropriation last Thursday to the Finance Committee members. Mayor Daniel M. Knapik has submitted appropriation of $100,000 to address safety concerns at WVTHS and $100,000 for repair of facilities at Bullens Field, in addition to the WVTHS vehicle appropriation.
WVTHS Director Stefan Czaporowski said the school currently has two 20-passenger vans to transport students “all over the city” that are no longer safe because of their age. One van is a 1989 model and the other is a 1995 model.
“They’ve been repaired so often, but now there is structural corrosion and the vans have no modern safety items,” Czaporowski said. “If I had kids, I would not take them out in those vehicles.”
The school is also seeking to purchase a new dump truck, used by the Horticulture Department, to replace a 1990 truck.
The Finance Committee members voted 2-1 to give the positive recommendation with Ward 5 Councilor Robert Paul Sr., objecting to the use of free cash to finance the vehicle purchases. Paul suggested that the district submit a bond to cover capital expenditures.
“I don’t understand why we need to take this money from free cash,” Paul said. “If we could look at a bundle of expenditures, this is what we need, not this fragmented approach all over the place. I don’t see how this fits into making the School Department better.
“Come back with a bond for infrastructure needs, out capital (expenditure) costs on the table to make a transformation in the district,” Paul said.
Rix said the last school district bond was approved by the City Council to initiate a uniform technology program in the schools more than a decade ago. Prior to that bond, parent support groups were donating computers to schools which resulted in a hodge podge of technology.
Rix requested the Finance Committee to keep the other two appropriations in committee while the current Fiscal Year 2014 budget was “swept” for funds to internally fund the safety issues at WVTHS and the improvements at Bullens Field.
