SCHENECTADY — Schenectady voters gave the school district’s $300 million capital project a resounding green light, with 79% approval during Tuesday’s balloting. Now, Schenectady Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. says the district is moving swiftly to design the final plan.
Voters approved the project by a 1,026 to 267 margin, while also approving the district’s proposed $265 million 2023-2024 school budget and a pair of propositions to use $2.9 million to purchase and convert the former OrthoNY building at 530 Liberty St. into a community engagement center and to buy Keane Elementary School from St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church for $2 million.
While district voters previously approved capital projects for $70 million in 2014 and $64 million in 2017, Soler said the $300 million plan passed this week is a transformational moment for the district, with major renovations planned for eight school buildings and $60 million set aside for districtwide infrastructure improvements through 2030.
“I believe it was an opportunity for us to do something bold and to address some things that have been neglected for quite some time,” the superintendent said. “I think the community deserves it and I think the voters tonight [Tuesday] cemented that message by saying, ‘Hey, we support this.’ I wouldn’t view it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I view it as setting us up for the next seven years to really address some neglected schools, and to hopefully have some schools that are state-of-the-art and ready for our kids, community and our staff.”
The plan calls for $126 million in renovations at Schenectady High School and $25 million each for Central Park Middle School and the Steinmetz Campus, which is set to be converted to the district’s Freshman Leadership Academy Campus in 2025.
Soler said, with voter approval secured, the district will continue to plan the project, with the aim to begin construction on the Steinmetz Campus in the next year and work on the high school slated to begin in 2025 and continue until 2030, with the school set to receive a new main office and renovated locker rooms.
“The very first part of this work is going to be a lot of planning,” Soler said. “So, for the next six months or so, for the remainder of this year and I’d say into next year, there will be a lot of planning and drawings and then submissions to the New York State Department of Education. Then, we’ll get permits approved and then start moving the work.”
Schenectady Board of Education President Bernice Rivera, who was re-elected to a third term on Tuesday, alongside incumbent Board Member Nohelani Etienne and new Board Member Amanda Sponable-Pantalone, said the capital project approval will allow the district to refresh school buildings that, in some cases, are over a century old.
“I believe, with this money, that we can transform our district’s infrastructure, in addition to the budget that we received and the programs that we can initiate,” Rivera said on Wednesday. “The capital project being passed provides us with many opportunities with buildings that are 95 years old [on average] that need upgrades and a facelift so that our students can be very proud to enter our buildings.”
Soler said the district will begin holding weekly meetings immediately with its construction managers LeChase-Jacobs and project architects SEI Design Group.
“We’ll be meeting to start to dig into this process and to start determining what our loan is going to be or what we’ll go out to borrow,” Soler said. “With the grace of getting up to $300 million, it’s going to allow us to do some things that I think will be really beneficial. We’ve already laid out the plan around moving our freshman in two years, so Steinmetz is going to be one of the first campuses that we work on and then getting Fulton [Elementary] ready to be swing space, along with securing the purchase of these buildings [Keane Elementary and 530 Liberty St.].”
Under the district plan, Fulton Elementary will house students from Keane, Lincoln, Paige and Van Corlaer elementary schools as each school is undergoing renovations in the next seven years.
Rivera said the school board will work alongside district administration to implement the capital project.
“I think the next step is to collaborate and have conversations on the board about what we want to do and what the clear plans are for the next steps,” she said. “I anticipate in the next few board meetings, probably after our reorganization, that we will have further conversations at the board level and figure out what are the next steps.”
Rivera said she intends to remain in her role as board president in her forthcoming third term.
“I’m extremely grateful and honored and I take it very seriously and I’ll do my best to fulfill this role as I always have tried to in my time with the board,” she said of her re-election. “So I’m extremely appreciative and I can’t say that enough.”
The superintendent said if the capital project, which will receive 98% state funding, proves successful that it will allow the district to seek renovations down the road for district buildings that will not undergo major renovations in this round of work.
“If we do this well,” Soler said. “I’m hoping the community sees in seven years this was done well and this was not abnormal and this is something that we can do here.”
Contact Ted Remsnyder at tremsnyder@dailygazette.net. Follow him on Twitter at @TedRemsnyder.