Residents in the Fayetteville-Manlius School District can plan to vote on a $45.2 million capital project this December which will renovate Wellwood as well as make repairs to Enders Road Elementary and F-M High School and carry out energy efficient projects to all district building. This comes following a vote by the board of education to move the referendum forward.
At the Sept. 11 meeting of the school board, facilities planning was discussed in great detail by board members and project contractors on the best way to move forward on making much-needed repairs.
A presentation by project architects, planners and builders was given at the meeting. The scope of the capital project would include: about $35 million at Wellwood to renovate the 1933 wing, install a new HVAC system, a new roof and windows, to construct an addition to replace basement space, reconfigure bus and student drop off, create a new main entrance, to add parking spaces and bring ADA compliance up to standards; about $3 million at Enders Road Elementary to replace the boilers and add classrooms; about $4 million at the high school to replace boilers, update the main office and nurse suite, the LGI and bathrooms; and about $3.2 million to go toward making improvements in all of the district’s facilities to generate energy savings through an Energy Performance Contract (EPC).
Originally, school administration planned to bring a $42 million project to voters for just the construction and updates of the three buildings, but explored an option to include the $3.2 million Energy Performance Contract (EPC) with the capital project in order to receive 10 percent savings from building aid, said Jason Benedict, of King & King Architects. If the capital project is defeated, the EPC can still move forward through authorization from the school board.
About $9.4 million from capital reserves will be used, so the amount to be financed is about $35.8 million, and state building aid will cover a portion of the project. The projected tax impact would be about 28 cents per $1,000 assessed value, and would be a tax levy increase of about 1.1 percent.
One issue the board had to consider was that they had planned to have a November referendum vote, but both Madison and Onondaga counties will not have extra ballot machines due to the Nov. 7 Election Day. One concern board member Elena Romano had about a December vote was that residents in the school district who travel to other states during the winter months may feel they’re being left out of a vote and could be critical of the school board.
Board member John Cucinotta pointed out that absentee ballots would be beneficial in this case, and that the school district should make a public relations effort to educate residents about how to obtain an absentee ballot.
The board voted to put the capital project to a public vote on Tuesday, Dec. 5, and also to allow the architects to begin making plans for the project so it can be sent to the state education department quickly if it is approved.
If voters give the project the ok, the school district would move forward with the projects at a total sum not to exceed $45.2 million, and to use $9.42 million from capital reserves to levy a tax in the amount of $35.78 million. The earliest the project construction would begin is spring 2020, said Benedict.
For more information go to fmschools.org/facilities or to give feedback to the school district, go to fmschools.org/let’stalk.
