Onteora School District voters will decide May 20 whether to spend $70.5 million on improvements toward closing the elementary school in Woodstock and making upgrades to the school campuses in Boiceville.
The school board voted unanimously on March 18 to place the referendum on the ballot. The improvements will require $55.5 million in bonding, with the final $15 million from the capital reserve.
Bennett School improvements include ten added classrooms, an expanded library, office spaces, bathrooms and a security vestibule, a new drop-off lane, gym, replacement windows, music room additions, reconfiguration of the cafeteria and kitchen, and drainage, electrical, boiler work and fuel-tank removal.
The Bennett improvements will allow the closure of Woodstock Elementary by 2028.
Middle/high school improvements include $20 million and include new science classrooms, a counseling suite, main office-renovation, a nurse’s suite, auditorium work, athletic field improvements, track upgrades, the demolition of the old bus garage, a new students commons and upgraded parking.
Incidentals for both Bennett and the middle/high school add $11.7 million.
District consultants have calculated the projects will not cost taxpayers anything over the course of the bond payments because savings realized from the Woodstock closure and reconfigured bus routes will offset the cost.
By law, the savings cannot be part of the bond proposition language.
“We know we’re going to have savings, but as a worst case scenario, the taxpayer has to understand that if they vote for this, they are voting to take on the risk of paying this bond,” assistant superintendent for business Monica LaClair explained at the March 18 board meeting. “Because again, we’re going to borrow the money, we have to pay it back. And the taxpayers are the ones that will be paying us to pay it back.”
In addition to the bond proposition, voters will decide on a $63,588,660 budget for the 2025-26 school year, an increase of about two percent over the current budget.
Two board seats are up, with three-year terms starting July 1. Both terms run through June 30, 2028. Ballot petitions require signatures of 29 district residents.
The budget will be formally presented April 1 and the board will adopt the spending plan April 22. A public hearing is set for May 6 at the middle/high school.
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