ANTRIM — Easels holding three sets of drawings illustrating possible renovation options of the gymnasium wing at ConVal High School dominated the back of the Great Brook School cafeteria Tuesday night. They were there to provide information to voters attending a School Board presentation on the proposed $4 million bond for renovations and the proposed 2012-2013 operating budget.

“If you pass the bond, one of these options, or a conglomeration of the three of them, will be what we’ll deliver,” School Board member Mary Allen of Antrim told the audience. “The board chose not to pick a specific option. We picked a limit that we could spend and we’ll put it in the hands of a building committee to come up with the final plan. ... This is a renovation of a space that’s needed it for a long time. We’re hoping the voters will say it’s time to go forward now.”

The $4 million bond, if approved, would provide accessibility to the school’s gymnasium wing in order to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, replace the gym floor and add a divider curtain, acoustical panels and improved lighting to the gym, add health and fitness classrooms, revamp both boys and girls locker room and create two team rooms. All those elements are included in each of the three plans that had been developed and reviewed by a subcommittee of the Building and Property Committee during the last several months.

In March 2010, district voters narrowly rejected a warrant article calling for a $4.9 million bond that included about $3.7 million for improvements to the gymnasium.

Allen described some of the current conditions in the gym wing, emphasizing that the building fails to meet both ADA standards and requirements of Title IX, which calls for equal facilities for both male and female students.

“Our access is not working and our restrooms badly need upgrades,” she said. “We’re asking our kids to play varsity sports on a floor that’s deader than a doornail.”

She said the acoustics renovations would make the gym space much more suitable for high school band and choral concerts and other community events. The bond would also allow for replacement of air handling equipment, of which Allen said, “If it was a car, it would have antique plates on it.”

The additional classrooms could be used for health and physical education classes currently held in the main building of the school, which would free up space there for the ConVal alternative education program, which is now being held in rented portable classrooms outside the school.

Bond payments would not affect next year’s tax bills, Allen said, but would kick in the following year. The expected annual cost of the bond would be $477,345, payable each year over a 10-year period. Allen cited an analysis by the board of the estimated impact on taxes if the bond is approved. The board used the most recent numbers for each town’s equalized valuations and each town’s portion of the school budget. For the owners of a home assessed at $200,000, the estimated additional tax bill in the first year of the bond ranged from $36.79 in Antrim to $51.25 in Temple.

“This is our third try. We’ve got to move forward,” Allen said.

In response to questions about the three options and their cost estimates, ConVal Facilities Director Tim Grossi said the estimates had been provided by Banwell Architects, which did the drawings shown at the back of the cafeteria, and checked through Torphy Constructions of Peterborough.

Construction cost estimates for the full project, not including replacement of electrical switching gear, which might be funded separately, ranged from $3.4 million to $3.8 million. Grossi has said at earlier meetings that any of the three options could be built with the $4 million bond.

ConVal Dean of Faculty Gib West, who said he’s working on planning for ConVal’s upcoming accreditation review, said of the gym, “We can’t afford to wait. It’s the face of ConVal and it would be shameful if we don’t meet our obligations to our kids and our communities.”

ConVal Athletic Director Jon Hall described what he sees on a daily basis working in the current gym wing.

“There are significant physical problems,” Hall said. “The walls are crumbling. I do not have a handicapped accessible bathroom in that end of the building.”

His concerns were echoed by Bennington resident Linda Quintanilha, who said the building poses tremendous challenges to students with disabilities who can’t easily get into the gym area.

“Kid’s shouldn’t be subjected to going outside in the pouring rain,” she said. “It’s discriminatory and it has to be fixed.”

During the discussion of the proposed 2012-2013 operating budget, which has been set at $42,290,815, questions focused on the size of the district’s staff, given the fact that enrollment is declining. Asked why the salary and benefits line is up even though jobs are being eliminated, School Superintendent Dick Bergeron said many teachers’ salaries, which had been frozen for three years, will now increase every year under the contract voters approved last year. He said eight teaching jobs and eight other jobs had been cut during the budget process.

Charlie Levesque of Antrim asked why the administration staffing numbers were flat rather than being reduced. Bergeron said that during the time he’s been with the district, five administrative jobs have been removed and two have been added — a human resources director and Grossi’s job as facilities director.

“There’s always an up and down,” he said.

Deb Heath-Rogers of Peterborough urged the board to be cautious in making cuts.

“We cannot continue to cut programs that affect children,” she said. “I feel like if we continue to make cut after cut, we’ll lose our reputation as one of the best districts in the state.”

This article appeared in the Jan. 26, 2012, edition of the Ledger-Transcript.