More mobile classrooms for Batavia schools

It has to get worse before it can get better.

Batavia High School will add four extra mobile classrooms next year during construction of a new classroom wing, bringing the total number of mobiles at the school to eight.

The Batavia School Board approved an $18,930 lease for the four new classrooms on Tuesday night.

Construction of the new wing will displace several classrooms, and along with higher enrollment, necessitated the new mobiles, said Steve Caliendo, the district's associate superintendent for operations.

After the first 18-month phase of construction is complete, all the mobiles will be gone, said Superintendent Jack Barshinger.

Board member Jack Hinterlong said he wanted safety and security to be an important part of planning for the new mobiles.

He also questioned why the money for the lease came out of the district's construction fund as opposed to its operating fund, which is used to pay for the four current mobiles.

Barshinger said the mobiles would not be needed if construction wasn't displacing students.

The high school construction is a major component of the district's $75 million building referendum that voters approved last year.

That also included a new field house and auditorium at the high school, a new early-childhood center at Alice Gustafson Elementary School and a new gym at Rotolo Middle School.