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Three Village School Board Adopts Bond Resolution
Community Vote Date Set for Feb. 4
After considerable discussion, the Three Village Central School District’s Board of Education has voted to move forward with plans for a districtwide school improvement project and has set a community vote date of Tuesday, Feb. 4. With the Board’s approval, residents within the school district will have the chance to vote on the proposed plan, which will maximize efficiencies with respect to both financing and building integrity.
If voters approve the project, all district schools – which range in age from 42 to 62 years old – will see significant repairs to aging infrastructure. The plan – dubbed by the Board The Efficiency Project ¬– includes upgrades to major building systems such as heating and cooling ventilators, boilers, plumbing and electrical, as well as instructional spaces and areas of school security. Additional projects include window replacement, masonry repairs, replacement of asbestos floor tiles, interior and exterior doors, reconstruction of curbing and masonry, and installation of backup generators, as well as the replacement of school corridor lockers and folding gymnasium partitions at secondary schools. Athletic spaces, including the high school track and field event areas and the exterior bleachers, will also be replaced. Continuing with the district’s alternative high school initiative and as a possible source of revenue, spaces at North Country will be converted to create a vocational program for the Three Village Academy.
After a thorough analysis by the district’s business office, the bonding of these inevitable projects is deemed to be more financially efficient than rolling them into the district’s annual operating budget.
“Building systems, much like one’s home, require constant attention and repair in order to preserve their integrity and usefulness,” said Board of Education President Dr. Jeffrey Kerman. “By bonding these projects together, we are not only able to address systems that have exceeded their useful life within a short period of time, but also lessen the impact on our taxpayers, as two-thirds of the project will be paid for by the state. If we had to add these projects into our annual operating budget, it would cripple our finances and ultimately divert funds away from our educational program for the next 10 to 12 years.”
The total anticipated cost of the project is $56.156 million. Of this amount, 66 percent will be funded through New York State building aid. For the average household in the district, the project would cost approximately $119 a year or $10 a month over the term of the bond. The impact would begin in the 2015-16 school year and run for 15 years.
“Within the tax cap era, school districts are being forced to choose between funding educational programs and performing necessary building maintenance projects,” said Superintendent of Schools Cheryl Pedisich. “This bond allows us to address that reality in the most efficient way possible and enables us to allocate our operating budget toward creating appropriate class sizes and funding programs and services for students.”
On Feb. 4, community residents will have the opportunity to vote on the proposal. Polls will be open from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. at neighborhood elementary schools.
For more information on the building renovation project, including a list of improvements planned for each school, please visit the district’s website, www.threevillagecsd.org.