by Mike Townshend
After deliberations that stretched on for nearly four hours, the New Paltz Board of Education voted 6-1 to hold a special Feb. 9 election and allow voters to decide the fate of a proposed $49.78 million renovation to the New Paltz Middle School.
That project has already caused a rift in the community -- with landowners, professors, former and current village officials, a county legislator and laypeople all sounding off for and against the project.
The group Concerned Citizens of New Paltz has so far taken out two full-page ads in this paper to persuade voters not to support the middle school ballot initiative. The Feedback page in our Dec. 17 issue features two letters -- one letter against the project with 46 signatures, and one for the project with 42 signatures.
Dec. 16's vote was years in the making. Former school board member Barbara Carroll admitted that the middle school had been a financial drain on the district even during her tenure.
"I think that you're right to be biting the bullet and looking at it now," Carroll said. The past president of the board also told the board members that she felt that, recession or not, elements of the public would always oppose a large building project. "You're kind of damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
Board member Daniel Torres said that his vote to place the middle school on the ballot was a matter of doing the right thing.
"The burden's been placed on us right now to do something right," he said. Torres, a freshman at Marist College, has memories of being in the middle school building at the beginning of this decade. He moved to New Paltz and took remedial classes in the middle school, but he graduated New Paltz Central High School with honors, as class vice president and a devoted community activist.
Torres said he attributed part of his turnaround to going through the New Paltz schools.
Board member Steve Greenfield also voted to place the initiative on the ballot. "Bizarre layout in the middle school leaves first-time students confused -- and the building, which is a hodgepodge chimera of an original 1930s building with later-added wings, is out of touch with what students need now," said Greenfield.
"What a wonderful opportunity we now have to offer these outstanding educators facilities that actually serve, rather than obstruct, the team learning philosophy that has long existed and succeeded at our middle school," Greenfield added. "Now, after two years of intensive study and design exploration ... we as a community are poised to solve our problems and meet the needs of our children as we raise them to adulthood in the complex and challenging 21st century."
KT Tobin Flusser also voted with the majority to place the initiative on the ballot. She stressed the years of work on the project. About 50 official school board meetings featured discussions on the middle school -- not including subcommittee meetings.
"All of them were public meetings," Tobin Flusser said. "All of this equates to thousands of hours."
While she admitted that $49.78 million is a lot of money, the trustee also said she felt opponents of the project were wrongly attacking the board as elitist, rich and out of touch with local taxpayers.
"Don't think that the people on this board are rich fat cats who want to do something silly. We're typical New Paltzians," she added.
President David Dukler agreed that the $49.78 million price has caused a lot of sticker shock locally. But he also said that the district has been neglecting the middle school for at least 20 years.
"I accepted that it was our time to act," he said. Putting off the project would likely mean inflated construction costs and interest rates -- neither of which would be any more popular with voters.
Financial worries are real and are heading in at the district, according to Patrick Rausch.
With Gov. David Paterson working feverishly to control the budget in Albany, future funding to the schools is totally unknowable. Add that to a school board that wants to keep the tax levy growing by a steady four percent each year, and "whether we do the middle school or not really doesn't matter," Rausch said.
Despite his worry, Rausch voted to put the measure on the ballot. To not do so would be "depriving the community of a vote."
Trustee Edgar Rodriguez was the lone person on the board to vote against the initiative.
"As a trustee, I have the fiduciary and ethical responsibility to weigh the needs of the children and the community. I have done this and, at the moment, the preponderance of the evidence presented by the school district does not convince me to vote yes for the proposed bond," Rodriguez said.
Part of how the school district has presented the middle school project to the community also didn't make sense to Rodriguez.
"There are too many wants in the current plan and the needs are not clear at all," he said. "I would dare say that there is not a clear and present danger in the middle school that warrants $77 million."
Assuming a 4.5 percent interest rate, the total principal and interest payments for the renovated school comes out to that $77 million.
According to Assistant Superintendent Richard Linden, that 4.5 percent interest rate is a conservative estimate and the district might actually end up paying less than that for interest if voters approve the project.
Of the total $49.78 million project, the State of New York is expected to cover just more than $20 million with building aid money. That would leave local taxpayers with a $29.75 million local share.
However, state building aid will also apply to the interest payments for the new building, and could bring in an additional $10 million, according to Linden.
The district would not borrow the $49.78 million this year. Instead, they would lock in construction rates and actually borrow the money during the 2012-2013 school year. In this way, taxpayers would not immediately feel the pinch from borrowing in 2010.
Polls for the special election will be open at New Paltz Central High School from noon until 9 p.m. on Feb. 9.
For more information on the school district's plans, head to www.newpaltz.k12.ny.us and check the "Announcements" section.
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