Voters on Wednesday approved the Manhasset School District’s $22.6 million capital plan and corresponding $19.96 million bond proposal for renovations to classrooms, cafeterias and athletic fields.
The plan received 61.456 percent of the vote, district officials said. It needed a 50 percent simple majority to pass.
“I’m extremely grateful that the community came out to support our fine schools,” Board of Education President Regina Rule said. “It’s an important investment in the future of our students, schools and community.”
Superintendent of Schools Charles Cardillo was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
Voting took place in the Manhasset Secondary School gymnasium from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.
There were 93 absentee ballots cast, district officials said.
The majority of the capital work is slated to take place from June 2016 and August 2017, but Rule said a referendum was proposed for a December vote so construction could begin at the conclusion of the 2014-15 school year, when the district is retiring debt.
“It enables us to get designs and plans to the state education department sooner,” Rule said. “If we were to have waited, we would have lost a year to get the work started.”
District officials have said that by 2016-17, when the total bonding is projected to be completed, the estimated property tax increase for a Manhasset home valued at $1.008 million would be $134.
To determine projects for inclusion in the capital plan, the district’s long-range planning committee – comprised of residents and assisted by district administrators and architects – toured Manhasset’s three school buildings throughout the spring and early summer. Projects were then prioritized based on their apparent necessity and potential cost during subsequent committee meetings.
District officials have said a major priority of the proposed capital plan would enhance space at Manhasset’s three schools, either through wall removal or building extensions, to would accommodate projected increases to enrollment through the end of the decade.
The Board of Education also created a list of projects for which funding may be appropriated if the capital plan is completed for less than the $22,609,870 projected cost, including a $68,000 exterior door replacement at the Manhasset Secondary School, a $294,000 district-wide toilet reconstruction and $1 million in new asphalt.
Included in the capital plan is a $2,199,800 expenditure to remove walls and storage areas from five Manhasset Secondary School classrooms and a $375,000 project to split a computer lab into spaces used for computers and other technologies.
The district has authorized more than $252,000 toward science classroom and laboratory reconstruction at Munsey Park Elementary School and more than $348,000 in science classroom upgrades at Shelter Rock Elementary School.
The Board of Education also voted to transfer $2.4 million from its 2010 capital reserve fund to finance the reconfiguration of the interiors of science classrooms and the use of $250,000 donated by the Manhasset School Community Fund for the installation of air-conditioning throughout the district.
The plan also includes a $6,215,976 renovation and relocation of music and art classrooms at the Manhasset Secondary School to a section of rooms on the second floor currently used by the district’s central administration, which would move to a facility on campus currently used as the district’s bus garage.
Renovations to the bus garage, needed to accommodate 20 district employees, is projected to cost $3.2 million.
Officials have proposed a $2,346,000 kitchen renovation to clear additional storage spaces at the Munsey Park Elementary School cafeteria so students would not have to line up in the hallways near classrooms, disturbing nearby classes.
A $1,752,477 renovation and 1,300 square-foot extension to the Manhasset Secondary School’s 5,635 square-foot cafeteria was also included in the capital plan in an effort to cut down on student congestion at lunch tables.
The addition would eliminate six parking spaces from the school’s rear lot. Air-conditioning units would be installed on the roof of the cafeteria extension, financed by a $240,000 gift from the Manhasset School Community Association.
More than $1 million has been authorized to plant a sod athletic field at Memorial Field and install DecoTurf on four tennis courts there. In addition, the board has proposed to construct a new storage facility and bathroom and relocate a basketball court at the site to the Manhasset Secondary School.
