Voters to Decide on $56 Million Bond for School Repairs Tuesday

Three Village residents will head to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots on a $56 million bond proposal that would finance repairs to the district's schools. 

If passed, the bond would fund what the school board has named The Efficiency Project and it it would include significant repairs to aging infrastructure at all district schools, officials have said. 

Although the total anticipated cost of the project is $56.2 million, 66 percent of that total would be funded by the state, officials said. For the average homeowner in the Three Village district, the project would cost about $119 a year over a 15-year period beginning in the 2015-16 school year. 

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. 

“Building systems, much like one’s home, require constant attention and repair in order to preserve their integrity and usefulness,” Board of Education President Jeffrey Kerman said in statement on the district's website. “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.”  

A detailed overview of the project, its costs and the bond can be found here.

Polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m.- 9 p.m. at all of the district's elementary schools. 

How do you plan on voting Tuesday? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.