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WANAQUE - TV station makeover on hold
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - September 24, 2008)
WANAQUE - The Lakeland Regional High School (LRHS) superintendent announced that renovation projects for a television station and home economics classroom are “on hold” because of a possible budgetary conflict with LRHS employee health benefits.
During the Sept. 9 LRHS Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Albert Guazzo said that although $311,000 has been budgeted to renovate the television station and home economics classroom, that money may have to be redirected toward the health benefits of high school personnel.
“I can’t put the district in the red by opening up money to these projects and then find we don’t have money for health benefits,” Guazzo said.
Within the next two months, the LRHS administration is set to discuss health benefits with its secretaries, then with bus drivers later this school year. Its insurance carrier is Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which provides at least $2 million coverage for all of the high school’s employees.
The high school is being cautious with how much money to spend on the renovations because of an unanticipated price raise in the health benefits. Late last school year, LRHS got a letter from Blue Cross and Blue Shield saying that the cost of these benefits would increase 60 percent, Business Administrator Michael Leary said. The high school has been working with its broker to meet those increasing costs.
More than likely, Guazzo said, the TV studio and home economics class revamps would get slated for next summer. Last year, the LRHS Board of Education addressed upgrading the high school’s numerous facilities.
Those upgrades include the renovation of the home economics classroom and television studio, security camera installation, air conditioning improvements, auditorium lighting renovations, driveway pavement and emergency power generator improvement.
Currently, television classes are being held in the old facility, according to Guazzo. The high school is also using its old home economics class, but “we’re functioning on 1958 designs,” he said.
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