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Superintendent's
Corner
December 11, 2006
Dear Students, Families, Staff & Community Members:
On Tuesday, December 12, from 1 to 9 p.m. the district will be
conducting a public vote at the elementary school. Recently, there
was an editorial in one of the daily newspapers criticizing a local
district’s capital project plans. The editorial went on to say that
State financial incentives alone do not merit public support for
capital projects.
Why has your Board of Education advanced the $1.398 million project?
Simply put, the Board feels it makes both instructional and
financial sense. The rationale consists of the following reasons:
- The construction costs are
covered 100% by building and Excel aid (a new form of state aid
available to districts on a one-time basis to cover the cost of
certain repairs and improvements).
- All of the projects address
needs identified in the 5-year Capital Facilities Plan.
Budgetary constraints placed them on the “back burner.”
- The priorities were
established based on health & safety, program, and energy
conservation needs.
Some of the questions that the
Board deliberated upon before reaching its conclusion to put this
proposition before the voters were as follows:
- Does it not make sense to
improve the regulation and distribution of heat in the old wing,
especially when those improvements have a short payback period?
- Has the room design of the old
“industrial arts shop” outlived its infrastructure and program
design?
- Should the drainage and
surfacing problems of the lower parking lot be addressed because
of safety hazards?
- After 30 years of limited
maintenance, is it not time to upgrade the high school locker
rooms?
The voting public must weigh the
pros and cons of the rationale presented and use its “common sense”
in casting a yea or nay at the polls. Frankly, the Board’s greatest
worry is that people will stay home and forget to vote. Please take
the time on Tuesday, December 12, to vote in the
elementary school gym from 1 to 9 p.m.
For more information, visit the
Capital Project
section of the district Web site.
Sincerely,
Mark Villanti, Ed.D.
Superintendent of
Schools
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