The Pine Bush Central School District is grappling with the implications of a split vote on the two-part capital improvement plan.

The May 21 budget vote included a vote on the $53.975 million capital improvement plan. The base bond proposition included building maintenance and repairs, while the second proposition was for athletic improvements.

The $9.1 million athletic proposition was defeated by 28 votes, according to unofficial election-night results. It would have included the replacement of the current high school field and track with a synthetic turf field and a new eight-lane track. A new grass athletic field with a six-lane track would have been built at Circleville Middle School.

Pine Bush Superintendent Tim Mains said the major features of the athletic proposition will not be completed for the foreseeable future. The high school track is in terrible shape, and Mains said the Central Design Committee (CDC) will meet to discuss what urgent needs might need to be addressed.

“We’ll need to determine another way to address the urgent needs athletics present,” Mains said.

Voters passed the $44.9 million base proposition. It includes safety features and much-needed building repairs, such as secure vestibules, roof repairs and replacements, boiler replacements, emergency generators, parking lot repaving, window and brick replacements, water infiltration remediation and more.

Mains said the school will break ground on phase one of the base bond proposition in summer of 2020. The project will be broken into three phases, and one phase is to be completed per construction season of 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The state aid for the proposition is approximately $41.2 million, with a contribution from the capital reserve of $7.5 million. This leaves $5.3 million, plus borrowing costs, for the local portion, which will be bonded out for a total of 18 years.

The projected average annual increase to taxpayers is 1 percent. If you have a $3,000 tax bill, your average monthly cost is $2.50 more. If you have a $10,000 tax bill, your average monthly cost is $8.33.

However, the local share could shrink further as more money is deposited in the capital reserve fund over the next four years, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael Pacella.

This version of the capital plan is a reduction from the $76 million facilities modernization plan (FMP), which included both building improvements and athletics. Voters defeated the FMP in December.

“We took out everything we could to get it down to a price point we thought the voters could accept,” Mains said.

All aspects of the passed base proposition are either urgent or important, and all aspects are critical to the health of the buildings, Mains said. The CDC and school board removed all non-critical elements from the original FMP and moved some items to the building and maintenance budget so some construction elements could be done in-house.

Voters also passed the $118.77 million 2019-20 budget, an increase of 2.23 percent.
Pacella said the tax levy for the budget—the amount raised by taxes—increased by 3.07 percent. The tax levy is $60.05 million, an increase of $1.78 million from last year.