The Rye City School District’s $19-plus million bond to construct a new science building that will address booming enrollment and aging infrastructure at the Rye High/Middle School campus is back on track.

 

By Jim Byrne

 

The Rye City School District’s $19-plus million bond to construct a new science building that will address booming enrollment and aging infrastructure at the Rye High/Middle School campus is back on track.

 

The plan hit a snag earlier this month, just as the Board of Education was prepared to approve a referendum for a December 6 vote. Instead of voting to push the bond to the polls, Board President Laura Slack announced that a letter sent October 6 by the City of Rye – raising traffic, pedestrian safety, parking, and storm-water runoff concerns – would jeopardize the project’s completion in time for the 2014-15 school year.
However, the City and District worked through the issues, and the Board expects to move forward at their October 25 meeting, setting up a mid-December vote.

 

“The situation was unfortunate but the School District and City came together for the benefit of the children of Rye as well as the taxpayers,” said Ms. Slack October 19. “We received a letter today from the City saying there were no objections, and now we’ll go ahead.”

 

On October 18, Mayor French noted, “From the City’s perspective, the project was a go to move to a Board vote, but we continue to work collaboratively with the District to clarify potential issues. We met again today and it was another productive meeting for both sides and a prudent step as they look to move forward.”

 

Although City-School relations appear to be hunky dory at the moment, the mood at the October 11 meeting was anything but. The Board decided to table the action items on the agenda, and forwarded the correspondence to their environmental consultants.

 

Reacting to the fallout, Mayor French said at the time: “In short, the City has no objections to the project and responded to the Board’s request for comment by October 10 as part of the SEQRA process. The City did not call for any additional environmental review, but raised concerns for Board consideration as the project moves through site specific planning.”

 

Mayor French later said that the City’s role is to ask what the long-term implications are of projects. “I don’t think of it as a lack of communication, I think it’s improved communication because we’re asking questions. Part of the role of government is to be educator-in-chief regarding process.”

At the October 4 Board meeting, Ed Fox indicated – based on the Finance Committee’s updated five-year forecast – that the tax levy change for 2012-13 school year could range between 4.62 and 5.64%, and 3.69 and 4.7% for 2013-14, when the bond’s debt impact would be felt in earnest. A bond of $19.6 million would add an additional 2% to the levy change for 2013-14, and going “all-in” for a $26 million bond equals a 2.75% bump. The Board member added that the forecast contains numerous assumptions and is in no way set in stone. If the public approves the bond, the Board has urged that they support future budgets as well to override the tax cap.