Photos by Lauren Thomas
Voters in Highland on Tuesday, October 28 will choose whether or not to support the Highland Central School District’s $17.5 million proposed capital improvement project. The vote will be held at the high school in the band room from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
State aid will pay for 66 percent of the project, or approximately $11 million, which reduces the local share to just under $6.5 million (exclusive of interest, which is also eligible for state aid). Taxpayers will not see any impact until 2018, by which time old debt from past projects will be paid off and replaced with this new debt in a seamless transition to keep the budget stable. “The district is looking at this project strategically to happen with as minimal an impact on taxpayers as possible,” said schools Superintendent Deborah Haab. “We’re only doing things that are absolutely necessary and critical to operations and the safety of the students and the staff.”
If the bond issue is approved by voters, the estimated impact to a homeowner with a Basic STAR exemption will be $9 annually per $100,000 of assessed property value. For seniors with an enhanced STAR exemption, the estimated cost in taxes will amount to $4 per year per $100,000 assessed value, and commercial properties (ineligible for an exemption) would pay $13 in taxes per year for every $100,000 of assessed property value. The debt will be paid off in 15 years.
The project has been trimmed down considerably from the $25 million project proposal rejected by voters last December. The controversial installation of an artificial turf field at the high school was eliminated from the current project in favor of installing less costly improved irrigation to the existing field, and construction of the secured entrance portals at all three schools has been streamlined to exclude additional office renovations that had been planned.
The Highland BOE arrived at the current $17.5 million project after reviewing the recommendations of the Facilities Needs Review Committee of community volunteers they put together earlier this year to review the scope of work identified as necessary. The board worked throughout the summer going over every individual line item on both the original proposal and the committee’s recommendations to hammer out the slimmed down capital project proposal currently coming up for vote.
At a Board of Education meeting in August, Highland BOE member Mike Bakatsias summed up the situation: While the new slimmed down proposal “is not everything we want throughout our campuses, we really heard the community say, ‘We can’t afford everything we want; what do we need?'”
The reality
New Paltz Times recently had the opportunity to tour the three schools in the Highland Central School District in order to view the condition of the buildings firsthand. The tour was conducted by Superintendent Deborah Haab and schools facilities manager Peter Miller, accompanied by Holly Brooker (community relations coordinator for Ulster BOCES), Highland BOE president Alan Barone, board members Tom Miller and Mike Reid and architect Pat Flynn of Ashley McGraw (the architectural firm contracted for the project) along with his colleagues, Sandra March and Derek Goodroe.
The Highland BOE has been transparent with the community in revealing each and every item in the schools they’re asking for funding to repair or replace. A complete list of items is on the district website at www.highland-k12.org. But reading the list, which is extensive to say the least, is somewhat mind-numbing in the way that statistics often are: there’s so much to take in that each individual need gets lost. Seeing it in person is another matter.
Safety
Safety concerns at all three schools were apparent. Old electrical panels that date to 1960 have breakers that don’t trip, and fire alarm panels from 1971 cannot identify where in the building an alarm is going off should there be an emergency. Current code requirements for everything from maintaining proper food serving temperatures in the cafeteria line and air flow and ventilation standards within the classrooms aren’t being met.
At the high school, a large number of the circa-1984 emergency windows in the classrooms don’t function, their lift systems inoperable. School facilities manager Peter Miller demonstrated how the windows that weigh 94 pounds each cannot be lifted by someone of average strength in an emergency. Only one window in each classroom currently functions.
In the high school’s fitness room, there is asbestos underneath the old carpeting. Every time a weight is dropped on the floor, said Miller, it releases a little bit of it into the air. Asbestos abatement needs to be done in that room along with improved air flow and ventilation.
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