The Capital Improvement Project Proposition Vote will take place this coming Monday, January 9, from 1:00 - 8:00 p.m. and will be held in the High School Main Gym. Earlier this week the district hosted a Capital Project Community Information Night for residents to come out and learn more and ask questions about the proposed project. You can view the recording from the evening here.
This proposal, approved by the Board of Education in mid-November, is comprised of improvements for every campus in the district. Many of the items covered are considered infrastructure maintenance and improvements that will make our buildings safer and more comfortable for our students, staff, and families. We also focused on safety and security improvements throughout the district. You can view a complete list of items covered under this proposed project here.
The items selected for this project were brought together from a variety of informative sources, including a Community Survey and recommendations from the most recent Building Condition Survey. The New York State Education Department requires schools to complete a Building Condition Survey in collaboration with a licensed architect or engineer every five years. The survey, completed during the 20-21 school year, identified several immediate repairs and replacements that need to be made to maintain our school facilities. There are also preventative elements within the proposed plan. A district Facilities Planning Committee reviewed these plans along with information about former projects, the community survey, and future educational programs.
If voters approve the project on January 9, 2023, the district would be reimbursed for approximately 72% of the total project cost through state building aid. The capital project proposition authorizes the district to use $5.1 million from our capital reserve fund to pay for this project. The remaining cost would be financed through bonds for a 15-year period. The estimated annual cost to our taxpayers will be $0.05 per $1,000 of true home value. This will equate to $5 per year for a home with a true value of $100,000.
View more information about the proposed project on our Capital Improvement Project website here. Come out and vote on Monday, January 9!
Parking Information
We are asking voters in the RCS Central School District to follow the same traffic pattern used for the Annual School Budget Vote. The vote will take place in the new high school gymnasium, which is most easily accessible from our Rt. 101 entrance and is located at the rear of the Middle School/High School Campus. Voters will need to park in the new parking lot (the former tennis courts) located between the new gym and the bus garage. This is the only parking lot with direct entry to the new gym, and all voters will enter the gym through the exterior doors facing the lot.
The best way to access the parking lot is by way of Albany County Route 101, behind the middle and high school campus. There will be signs on Route 9W and Route 101 directing voters to the proper parking area. For safety reasons, no voters will be permitted to drive through the center of the middle and high school campus from 1:45 - 3:00 p.m., and 4:45 - 5:15 p.m. During these times, voters must access the parking lot via Route 101.