During its meeting on March 19, the Guilderland Board of Education unanimously voted to adopt a resolution for a proposed capital project totaling $30,926,000. The revised project proposal will be presented to the public for a vote on Tuesday, May 21, the date of the annual school budget vote.
After voters rejected a capital project proposal of $42.7 million in October 2018, district officials and board members reviewed exit survey results and sought feedback from the public using the online platform ThoughtExchange. The Exchange was open to the public for two weeks in February and had 824 participants made up of parents, students, community and staff members, and included 784 “thoughts” (comments) and garnered over 25,000 “ratings” (interactions). View the results from the Exchange.
“There is still critically important work to be done to keep our students in a safe, secure, healthy learning environment,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marie Wiles.
The revised proposal addresses the district’s most immediate needs: aging infrastructure in the district’s seven school buildings; improvements for safety, security and technology systems district-wide; and modernizing student learning spaces.
Highlights of the project include:
- Fire alarm, public address (PA) and telephone system replacements, camera replacements;
- Upgrades to heating and ventilation systems, including air conditioning on the second floor at FMS;
- Updating and modernizing 12 high-school science labs;
- Technology infrastructure upgrades
- Roofing and paving replacement
For district residents owning a home or property with an assessed full value of $316,000 (the median assessment in the Town of Guilderland), the estimated tax increase per year for the proposed projects based on current information is $65. For every dollar spent, the state will reimburse the district approximately $0.65 for all eligible expenses. To lower borrowing costs, the district will apply $3.4 million from cash reserves to pay for construction costs with the $27.6 million balance borrowed for a 15-year term.