The Board of Education is investigating a capital bond project that will provide money for roof repairs, site improvements, electrical upgrades, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) replacements throughout the school district.
The projected useful life of many of these facilities will come to an end as early as 2007, and the equipment will therefore require attention in the near future. To remedy this, the administration is hoping to issue a bond for between $45 million and $65 million, which will provide funds in addition to the operating budget (i.e. money provided by property taxes). Superintendent Judith Pastel said, “Depending on the site, with additions, we can pay it off over the course of 20 years.”
The bond process began in November and December of 2005 with a routine facilities survey mandated by the state. An architect and an engineer evaluated the lifespan of all Ithaca City School District building systems, and at the same time, the administration received input about project needs from staff members, Site Councils, and PTAs.
In July and September of 2006, a district-wide Facilities Bond Committee was formed, with representation from the community such as Athletic Boosters, Cornell, Ithaca College, Ithaca Public Education Initiative, PTA, Site Councils, and the Chamber of Commerce. Together, they discussed preliminary decisions such as when to hold the public referenda, the number of propositions to be voted upon, what projects would be included, and the dollar amount of each proposition.
These decisions were based on a number of factors, including the predicted end of the facilities’ useful life, anticipated cost escalation for a project, state building aid, economies of scale (saving money by conducting similar projects at multiple sites), and the number of projects that can be effectively managed at a given time.
To complicate the district’s work, the window for project work is quite small. “One of the things that people don’t understand is that with public schools, you have a very narrow window in order to do the construction because it’s only July and August when the buildings are vacated, and teachers get grumpy if they can’t get in until September 1, so you actually have less than two months for the renovations,” said Pastel. However, she added, “There are some renovations that you can actually do while school is in session, but you have to do them after the students are out of the building. They have to be such that there’s no smell or safety issues with wires.”
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