Polls for the school district election are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the Pelham Middle School gym, with voters being asked to decide on the $96.3 million annual budget, four capital bond propositions totaling $143.7 million and a proposal to purchase a piece of property. Trustees Natalie Marrero, Will Treves and Jackie De Angelis are running unopposed for reelection to second three-year terms on the Pelham Board of Education.
If approved, the budget would boost spending 2.9% and the tax levy 3.48%, which equals the state-set cap on increases.
Due to the way the school board structured the bond vote, Proposition 1 must be approved for any of the others to pass, even if one or more of Propositions 2, 3 or 4 receive enough votes to win adoption on their own.
Proposition 1 would fund repairs and renovations at all the schools except Siwanoy Elementary and Hutchinson Elementary, Proposition 2 an expansion including Americans with Disability Act (ADA) compliance at Siwanoy, Proposition 3 a three-story addition at Pelham Memorial High School with eight new science labs and a commons/cafeteria space, and Proposition 4 the installation of geothermal systems at Siwanoy and Prospect Hill Elementary School.
Here are specifics on the four propositions approved by the school board with the amounts that would be borrowed by the district if each is approved:
- Proposition 1: $56.2 million for infrastructure projects at Colonial Elementary School, Prospect Hill, Pelham Middle School and PMHS, including central AC at Prospect Hill and Colonial. Other work would include window replacements, roof repairs, masonry restoration and replacing end-of-life steam boilers in Colonial, Prospect Hill and PMHS.
- Proposition 2: $42.6 million to install elevators, ramps and other improvements to make Siwanoy compliant with the ADA, renovate space under the gym into a new cafeteria and build a two-story, eight-classroom expansion, with a net gain of three classrooms because existing rooms will be lost after construction of the elevators and cafeteria. The building will also see infrastructure upgrades similar to those listed in Proposition 1 for the other schools, including replacing boilers and installing central AC. (Contingent on adoption of Proposition 1.)
- Proposition 3: $40.4 million for the addition to PMHS, which would run along Ingalls Field between PMHS and PMS. Existing science labs on the third floor of the PMHS annex would also be updated as part of the project. (Contingent on adoption of Proposition 1.)
- Proposition 4: $4.5 million for the geothermal wells. (Contingent on adoption of Proposition 1.)
The following table shows estimates of the impact on the property taxes for homes with three different assessed valuations under the various scenarios involving passage of Prop 1 and combinations of the other three:
Voters will decide on a separate proposal that would permit the district to spend as much as $1.85 million to purchase and renovate the house at 29 Franklin Place for office space. The project would be funded out of reserve funds and have no impact on taxes, the district said.
In the trustee election, De Angelis is the president of the board and Marrero serves as vice president. (Board officers are elected to one-year terms by the the trustees at their organizational meeting in July.) This is the first uncontested school board race since 2020, when voting was delayed until June and carried out by mail balloting due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kids Vote
Parents can bring along their children in Kindergarten through fifth grade to participate in the traditional kids vote from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the PMS lobby. The students’ choices this year are:
- Game day
- Character dress-up day
- Extra recess
- No homework day
Editor’s note: Clay Bushong, owner of 29 Franklin Place, is a member of the board of directors of the Hudson Valley Local News Lab Inc., which owns and publishes the Pelham Examiner. He had no role in the production of this story.
