SCHENECTADY — Design work on the early phases of the Schenectady City School District’s $300 million capital project continues to move forward, with the district planning to break ground on portions on the project in summer 2024.
District taxpayers approved the plan on May 16, which will see construction work on district buildings last through 2030 as eight district buildings undergo major renovations, with $60 million of the approved funding set aside for districtwide upgrades.
During a presentation to the school board during its meeting on July 19, Richard Little, project manager for architect SEI Design Group, told the board that the construction schedule will undergo changes as the district prepares for seven years of building refurbishments.
“With any project at this level and with so many moving pieces, I think all of the board is ready to be willing to understand that things might be changing as we move along,” school board President Bernice Rivera said on Monday.
The project’s early phases will consist of work to the Steinmetz Campus, which is set to be converted to the district’s Freshman Leadership Academy Campus in 2025. The early phase of the capital project will also include renovations to Van Corlaer and Fulton elementary schools.
Planning and design is still in progress for the early stages of the capital project, with the district seeking state Education Department approval for each stage of the multi-year project.
“Since the public voted in May, the architects are still going through the buildings,” District Chief Financial Officer Terrence Gillooley said on Monday. “They did preliminary work prior to the vote just to inform what we’d be working on, but since then they’ve been meeting with various stakeholders and going through the buildings and looking at what areas we’re going to touch. They’ll get those plans together and submit them to New York State Ed for approval, so we’re really in the preliminary stages.”
Gillooley added that the district hopes to submit applications for the early phases of the project to the state by fall, with construction work to begin next summer pending approval.
The capital project work that will continue until 2030 will see the district conduct a slew of renovations to district buildings, including $126 million in renovations to the high school, including a new main office and an athletic wing reconstruction. The capital project will also include $25 million in repairs to Central Park Middle School, with the campus set to receive new ceilings and an upgraded hot water distribution system.
“We had to have the public vote before we could submit any work to the state,” Gillooley said. “Not knowing if they were going to approve it, the architects don’t want to develop anything and not get approved. They did preliminary work, but now they’re really getting into the nuts and bolts of the designs.”
A pair of projects utilizing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and capital repair funds are prepared to move forward, as a tennis court replacement project at the high school and renovations to the track and athletic fields at Mont Pleasant Middle School are slated to begin construction before the end of the summer.
“We anticipate the project at Schenectady High School that they’ll start to load the project with equipment and materials somewhere around Aug. 15,” District Chief of Facilities and Operations Brian Dengler said on Monday. “Weather permitting, they’re looking at a Dec. 1 completion of the tennis court expansion, including lighting and four additional courts.”
Dengler said the work at Mont Pleasant would begin in late August with a projected completion date of September 2024.
“This is a big deal for us and a big deal for this side of the city,” schools Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. said of the Mont Pleasant project during the meeting. “People always talk about two sides of Schenectady and this side has been long neglected. So I’m really excited to see this happen.”
Summer work utilizing district funds to enact security upgrades to its buildings is currently underway, with work completed to ensure each of the 18 campuses are able to implement standardized building lockdowns and to automatically notify 911 in the event of a lockdown.
Work to secure the perimeter at Schenectady High School has been completed, with perimeter work underway at Mont Pleasant, Oneida and Central Park middle schools. Work to secure the perimeter at the remainder of district buildings is still to be done, with the district also set to install new PA systems to bolster security.
“It’s a constant work in progress and we’re doing as much as we can now before the $300 million capital project,” Dengler said.
In May, voters also approved referendums for the district to purchase the former OrthoNY building at 530 Liberty St. for $2.9 million for a community engagement center and to buy Keane Elementary School from St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church for $2 million. The purchase of the Liberty Street property is still ongoing, with the project included in the early phase of the capital work.
Contact Ted Remsnyder at tremsnyder@dailygazette.net. Follow him on Twitter at @TedRemsnyder.