Construction is set to start this summer on nearly $64 million of school upgrades in the West Babylon Free and Shoreham-Wading River Central school districts in Long Island, N.Y. following recent voter approval of two school bonds to finance the work.

Dubbed the “Renewal Project,” the $48.5-million Shoreham-Wading River Central School District’s (SWRCSD) improvements and renovation program is being partially funded by a $33.5-million bond.

Work will take place in all four district schools — Shoreham-Wading River High School, Albert G. Prodell Middle School, Miller Avenue Elementary School, and Wading River Elementary School. Prior-year state aid funds will cover about $15 million of the construction.

The district’s masonry and steel frame school buildings were constructed in the early 1960s and 1970s; without updates for decades, the schools are starting to deteriorate and don’t comply with current building codes and ADA regulations, the district says.

Work will focus on renovations, repairs, rebuilding school buildings, and expanding food service facilities and instructional spaces, including a 6,000-sq-ft addition to Albert G. Modell Middle School’s 103,085-sq-ft building. The new addition will house a cafeteria and a district kitchen. Additionally, all educational buildings will receive comprehensive security upgrades, including camera and car access entrance controls.

“Improved classroom and related spaces will meet the needs of the current educational programs and standards,” says Michael R. Inserra, project manager at BBS Architects, Landscape Architects, and Engineers, Patchogue, N.Y., the construction program’s lead architect and engineer.

The $30-million West Babylon Union Free School District’s construction bond will encompass work at West Babylon Senior High School and Junior High School, Forest Avenue Elementary School, John F. Kennedy Elementary School, Santapogue Elementary School, South Bay Elementary School, and Tooker Avenue School, as well as a 1,950-sq-ft bus garage and a 1,500-sq-ft driver’s building owned by the district.

Both programs are set for completion within the next five years, BBS says.

The value of voter-approved school construction bonds for BBS-designed programs on Long Island and in the greater New York City area in the last two years exceeds $350 million, the firm says. This includes Plainview-Old Bethpage’s $50-million “Building Futures Together” construction program, which is also scheduled to begin this summer.