ADAMS TWP — Consultants recommend the Mars School Board either demolish and rebuild the original part of the high school or renovate and add on to make the changes necessary for growth at the school.

At Tuesday night's school board meeting, Dale Roth and John Linden of Roth MARZ Partnership, the district's architectural firm, presented the results of the feasibility study the board requested in December after a presentation by Linden regarding the school's deficiencies.

The first option would involve major renovations, including gutting and rebuilding the two-story interior of the school's oldest section toward the center of the school. The plan would allow for additional levels in the future, and would reconfigure the school's design to meet the needs listed in the study.

The option would cost about $14 million. Roth calculated the state Department of Education would reimburse the district about $9.7 million.

The other option would be the total demolition and rebuilding of the oldest part of the school. The new building would then be constructed using the specifications from the first option. This option also would cost the district about $14 million, Roth said. The education department would reimburse the district about $8.4 million.

A third option, which was not discussed, would require voter approval by referendum.

Superintendent William Pettigrew said the district could borrow $14 million without going over its debt limit, which would cover the two options presented.

Linden told the board the State Department of Education's enrollment projections for the high school in 2016-17 are as much as 600 students low compared with his research. He said in 1998-99, the department projected a little more than 200-student increase by the 2005-06 school year when the district actually grew by 500 students during that time.

Linden said education department demographers did not take the growth expected in Adams and Middlesex townships into consideration, especially when infrastructure projects that would increase population are under way in Middlesex.

"The (state department's) numbers don't reflect your true growth," said Linden.

He also pointed out that when the district began planning to build the new elementary building a few years ago, an independent demographer argued his findings regarding enrollment projections with demographers at the department and was able to have his numbers used in the project. That meant $900,000 more in state department of education reimbursement for the project.

Roth and Linden recommended the school board authorize another such demographic report for the high school project, which the board agreed to do.

Linden said the main areas of concern at the high school are:

• The inefficient and impractical nurse/guidance area

• The need for a redesign of the science department

• Expanding the television/production area

• Enlarging the family and consumer science program to include all grades at the high school

• Expanding the art and pre-engineering departments

• Enlarging a number of general education classrooms

• Restructuring and further developing the school's technology system

Regarding the building itself, Linden and Roth recommended:

• Updating the locks and security system

• Replacing the roof

• Replacing the boilers, which are original

• Replacing some ceilings

• Updating the telephone/communication system

• Replacing the current small lockers with larger ones

• Repaving major areas of the parking lots and driveways

• Revamping the inefficient electrical system

Linden and Roth promised to provide the board with a list of reputable demographers who have successfully argued with the state education department to have different enrollment projections used in a project.

There was no action taken on the matter.