OSWEGO – Members of the Oswego School Board got a glimpse Tuesday night of a proposed multi-million capital project aimed at refurbishing the district’s aging schools.
The projected cost of the plan is $60,180,000.
Local funds to be applied total $4,000,000.
State building aid is expected to pay for 63.4 percent of the work.
The estimated average local share per year would be $547,577. And the impact per $1,000 full value is anticipated to be 38 cents.
For the owner of a $100,000 home that would mean $37.87.
The impact on the tax levy is estimated at 2.14 percent.
Representatives from King + King were on hand to explain some of the highlights of the project.
Every five years, New York State schools are required to go through a state mandated building condition survey.
During the last survey, more than $41 million worth of work was identified across the district. During the next five years, it must be addressed in some form.
Among the proposed work:
At Fitzhugh Elementary:
• Replacement of roof system
• Replace interior floor finishes
• Masonry restoration and reconstruction
At Minetto Elementary:
• Replacement of exterior wall panels
• Replacement of exterior windows and some exterior doors
• Classroom reconstruction
At Riley Elementary:
• Replacement of interior classroom wall system including cubbies and lockers
• Replacement of interior doors and hardware for security
• Mechanical system upgrades
At Leighton Elementary:
• Reconstruction of the athletic wing – classrooms and locker rooms
• Replacement of interior floor finishes
• Exterior campus-wide site reconstruction
At Kingsford Elementary:
• Replacement of roof system
• Reconstruction of masonry
• Replace interior floor finishes
At Oswego Middle School:
• Windows, doors, hardware replacement
• Electrical system upgrades
• Exterior site reconstruction
At Oswego High School:
• Replace domestic water system and associated fixtures
• Locker room reconstruction
• Music suite renovations
• Exterior campus-wide site reconstruction
Project Financials
• OHS – $23,250,000
• OMS – $12,609,000
• FLS – $12,260,000
• Minetto – $3,050,000
• CER – $1,073,000
• KPS – $3,969,000
• FPS – $3,969,000
The next steps include the board approving a resolution for the work, public relations – project presentations and the public vote on March 6, 2018.
Following that, the proposal would be sent to the State Education Department and a reply would likely come sometime around October.
The work would be done over two summers in 2019 and 2020.
Also Tuesday night, the board approved using the former Ed Center as a polling site for the March vote.
The district’s other polling sites – the Scriba Fire Station, Elim Grace Church and Oswego Town Hall – would remain the same.
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Here’s a thought, with less enrollment how about closing down a school or two??…we’ve got enough $$$ coming out of our pockets with the water/sewer fiasco & now this?! Anyone want to buy a house? CHEAP!!! I want outta here yesterday!!!!
Robert, have you been to any of the elementary schools or in the classrooms? How many empty classrooms do you think there are in the district? For a fact, across all of the elementary schools, it’s very FEW and class sizes are HIGH. Get your facts straight before you write bogus comments.
John – there are 1/2 the number of students in the High School as there were in 1977. Since 1977 they have added classrooms, gyms, auditorium and made a larger lunch room for fewer students.
Exterior campus-wide site reconstruction…..does this mean they new Marching Band Complex…whoops sorry, I mean new football field?
Too much of a tax increase. Not including the ever inflated budget. I hope the word gets out so taxpayers can vote no. But the problem is you don’t have to be a home owner tax payer to vote. Anyone over 18 living in the district is eligible.
John, are you a teacher? Must be into something of the sort since you appear to be an authority on how many kids are in the schools. I don’t know where they’re all coming from as if you take a look around there’s enough empty, foreclosed, and for sale houses around here to make one suspect that all of these buildings are not needed! Of course, there’s probably a half-dozen or better kids within all of the PA-supported “families” around here so maybe you’re right? If you like more taxes so be it but I’ve had more than enough and that, sir, is not bogus! You’re reply to me seems to suggest I struck a raw-nerve with you….well, that’s exactly how I feel when I have to pay out more & more every year around here to gain nothing! G’day.
Don’t call it exterior site reconstruction. Call it what it is a new athletic complex…turf football stadium, turf softball and baseball fields. School building work and upkeep definitely needed but would project be 30 million dollars less without athletic complex. District officials should have said what they are actually building. Why couldnt they present athletic complex up front for what it was?
Great point Dave! They wanted to hide the new fake grass field for the band in with the high school renovation number so no one would find out the new fields are costing twenty to thirty million dollars. New fields are not covered by state funding.
Of course the $60 million doesn’t include the inevitable cost over runs, and the never ending change orders. a contract is a contract, except with the school board. The last “five year project” only took nearly ten years to complete and I don’t think the total final numbers of that original $40 million has ever been published. Just keep in mind that the current school budget runs over $80 MILLION annually. The entire city runs on less than half of that!