By TOM KANE

JEFFERSONVILLE - The Sullivan West School District administration and staff have some major planning to do in the next few months.

"The architects are going to need some directions from us," said Michael Johndrow, Superintendent of Schools.

Mark Lippi of the Hillier Group, an architectural company from Princeton, NJ, spent five hours meeting with the administration going over use of space in the existing buildings.

Since the configuration of the buildings at Delaware Valley, Narrowsburg and Jeff-Youngsville is changing, architects need to know how much room they have to play with in each building.

"Right now we have one class per grade in these two schools," said Sullivan West Superintendent Michael Johndrow. "Can we possibly have room for two classes for each grade-for any kind of expansion? The architects need to know those kinds of things."

Lippi did not discuss what would be inside the elementary classrooms but just what spaces were available. He will return on August 17 and 18 to meet with high school staff and discuss what they want inside their classrooms, kinds of desks, tables, wall hangings, black or white boards, etc.

"He's going to meet with each department," Johndrow said. The teachers, who are on vacation, are coming in on a voluntary basis, he said.

Currently, the architects and engineers are still doing sketches on what the new high school will look like. Once the planning with the staff is complete, the project moves into the blue-print stage. "Once the blue prints are done, that's it," This will happen some time in late September, Johndrow said..

Next, the plan goes to the State Education Department for approval. "That could take between 12 to 20 weeks," he said. We are going to press hard for them to shorten this time."

Once the state says yes, bids are sent out. "We're hopping to get the bids out by the first of the year," he said. After awarding the contracts, the contractors start preparing to move on to the site.

The major part of the renovations will probably be done during the summer, he said.

Johndrow said he hopes construction will begin in May 2001 with everything completed by September 2002.

Renovations will begin at the same time as the new construction, he said. "We're going to break ground next spring."

"We're told that this time line is realistic," he said.

An additional consideration is that the special education students will be returning to their districts from BOCES in a new move towards more inclusion of these students.

"This too needs to be considered," he said. "But this can't happen until the new building is completed."