The Roslyn Board of Education last Thursday announced they have awarded bids for the first phase of the construction projects under the bond referendum voters approved in May 2014.
Roslyn Superintendent for Business, Joseph Dragone said the capital projects, which will be undertaken at three Roslyn schools, will be paid for by a $9 million bond.
“We will issue nine of the $41 million in financial bonds which residents authorized in 2014 to pay for the capital programs,” Dragone said.
Dragone said although the school district was authorized to issue $41 million in bonds, he doesn’t expect to use the full amount.
He also called for the $9 million raised by the bond to be repaid over what he said he hopes will be a 15-year cycle in increments of $700,000.
“I am recommending to you to choose the 15-year schedule because it will save us over the life of the schedule $840,000,” Dragone said.
School officials said at the Feb. 9 meeting that the school was retiring a debt service expense of $800,000 it was paying for a $12.75 million bond that was issued back in 2002.
Dragone said the net impact that the newly issued bonds will have on resident’s taxes will be minimal since the new debt serving fees will be lower.
“We will issue another bond in about 18 months but we’re trying to limit the impact in the increase and decrease of the resident’s taxes,” Dragone said.
The bonds being issued will go towards the payment of capital plans at three Roslyn Schools, Dragone said.
“The work that we’re financing is to build a new bus garage next to the maintenance building at the High School,” he said.
A new bus maintenance facility, and field work at East Hills School, with extensive interior renovations at East Hills School and additional projects at the Roslyn Middle School slated to be undertaken over the coming summer months.
Dragone said work will begin within weeks on a new bus maintenance facility, which will be adjacent to the existing building used by the district’s buildings and grounds department on PARP Drive, in the rear of Harbor Hill School.
Renovation of the East Hills fields, which will address pressing needs for both playing fields and additional parking, will also begin in the spring.
Large-scale renovations to the school’s library, classrooms and hallways, encompassing extensive electrical and ventilation system improvements, among other changes, will be undertaken during the summer vacation.
All but the library will be ready for occupancy for the opening of school in September; the library is slated for completion later in the fall.
Bids were also approved for work to be undertaken at the Roslyn Middle School during the summer, though on a far smaller scale than at East Hills.
Renovations will also be made at the middle school with lighting added to the gym and cafeteria with drainage repairs.
Dragone said some of the work will start over the summer but the library will take more than a year
