At its meeting last night, the board presented a scaled-down version of the original $47 million proposal.
The revision, shown above (click to enlarge), essentially broke the total into two pieces, a $30 million piece consisting of "infrastructure and high priority program improvements" and a $16 million piece (the remaining items). A 4 classroom addition for $1 million was basically eliminated.
The board then voted 7-2 to revisit the manner in which the budget would be presented to the voters, with the majority agreeing that there would be two proposals rather than one.
There would be a basic, high-priority set of items and a second, additional set of desirable but not absolutely necessary items. Voters could then approve the first set, both sets, or neither.
The board will now be working to decide what items go into each of the two categories.
2 comments:
The High School certainly needs renovations. The roof leaks and the school never should have been built with a flat roof. As far as the other buildings I am outraged! Not to many years ago the community had to pay for the middle school's renovation project.Once again we are asked to pay for more work. As far as the Elementary School..give me a break! The district office has been remodeled already. The principals office was moved and remodeled and now we are asked to redo it again? Why? As far as having air conditioning in all three buildings you have got to be kidding. This is New York not California, Florida or Arizona!! For 2 or 3 months (and that's not everyday either)it may be warm while school is in session but otherwise school is on break. Are you saying we have to pay a lot of money for so little time. The student enrollment is down. Many people are moving away or home schooling their children. Why spend so much money when the numbers aren't there? In my opinion the only thing the bus garage needs is the overhead for the fueling station. While you you expect the community to pay millions on improvement why not add the public library? At least that building serves everyone in the community. They are running out of room for all the books and resources that help the community. I wonder if the director there was ever asked if that building needs improvements or renovations. I WILL NOT vote for this budget and will urge everyone to do the same.
I feel compelled to respond to the comment where it was stated "for 2 or 3 months it may be warm while school is in session." I am a teacher in the middle school so I can only speak for that building. In the middle school, on the second and third floors, it approaches 100 degrees in many of the classrooms during April, May, June,September, and even parts of October. That is no exaggeration. Classrooms continually have temperature readings of well over 90 degrees during those months. Add in the heat being generated from several computers/digital projectors and body heat from 20-25 students--you have an extremely unhealthy environment, let alone one productive to education. I have found that if the sun is out and the temperature is above 75, the rooms in CMS become unbearable. While we do not live in California, Arizona, or on the Equator for that matter, it is unfair to call installing AC a joke. Just ask the kids who sit in those classrooms all day during an 80 degree day in May or a 90 degree hazy, hot, and humid day in June.
Mark Connelly
CMS Teacher
Post a Comment