PORTER TOWNSHIP | Diane Kosmoski has a hard time with the $15,000 price tag for an administrative office desk included in the furniture budget of the $34 million proposal to expand Boone Grove High School.

"What's it made out of?" she asked.

Kosmoski is chairwoman of the group Citizens Against Raising Tax Dollars, which has been active in speaking against the project that would move the middle school to its own area within the high school building.

Whether to go ahead with the project is the single question for township voters on the June 16 referendum ballot.

Superintendent Nick Brown said last week the furniture budget, which also lists items such as 62 teachers desks at about $2,500 each, is simply an estimate provided by the project architect.

Since nothing's been built, the actual furniture needs would not be known until later and in any case would be bid out, no doubt at much more reasonable prices, Brown said.

The expanded high school building would have a total of 37 classrooms, so Kosmoski wonders why so many desks would be necessary and why middle school students and teachers can't just take their furniture with them.

Brown said that to a large extent, that would happen.

"I'm not going to replace existing furniture with new furniture," he said.

Brown said accepting the architect's furniture budget as is ran the risk of fueling criticism at the extravagant numbers.

In the past, the district has paid about $500 for teacher desks, he said.

"We're not going to spend 25 hundred on teacher desks," he said. The district would reuse as much furniture as it can, order responsibly and come in under budget, he said.

The important thing to remember about the project is that it would solve the overcrowding problem in district schools, Brown said.

Kosmoski said she accepts the argument that expanding the high school will address the immediate need and relieve overcrowding at Porter Lakes Elementary School, where fifth-graders have studied in portable classrooms the past two years.

But Porter Lakes is still in need of repair and if the district had expanded there, that would have headed off the overcrowding and there would be no need for a $34 million project, Kosmoski said.

BREAKOUT

If you go

Public meeting on Porter Township Schools project

Citizens for a Better Community

7 tonight

Boone Grove High School

260 S. County Road 500 West

Valparaiso