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Press release of January 23, 2007
EXCEL renovations & land purchase up for approval
BH-BL Schools schedules public vote
on March 1
BURNT HILLS: On March 1, residents of the Burnt
Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District will be
going to the polls in the high school gym to vote on
two special propositions.
The BH-BL Board of Education is asking
voters to support the purchase of approximately 4.6
acres of land adjacent to the Stevens Elementary
School and district bus garage for no more than
$98,000 and to approve using $4.9 million in state
funds to renovate its schools through the state
Legislature’s EXCEL program.
$4.9 million in renovations
Like many other school districts in the
Capital Region, BH-BL is looking to access its share
of a new short-term form of building aid that the
Legislature included in this year’s state budget.
Called EXCEL (for Expanding Children’s Education and
Learning), this temporary form of aid can be used by
school districts to pay for what is usually the
local taxpayers’ portion of construction or
renovation costs.
BH-BL is eligible for $1.1 million in state
EXCEL building aid, which the state would match with
an additional $3.8 million in regular building aid,
resulting in the total package of $4.9 million of
renovations to the five BH-BL schools.
“If the voters approve of our borrowing
this $4.9 million, under the state EXCEL rules we
can finance the entire package of renovations, both
principal and interest, with no additional cost to
local taxpayers,” says Assistant Superintendent
Jacqueline St. Onge.
The money would be used to pay for 12
renovation projects, including re-roofing specific
high priority areas of all five schools, replacing
the inefficient 56-year-old steam heating system at
Pashley Elementary with a high efficiency hot water
system, replacing original corroded galvanized
piping at Stevens Elementary, upgrading the Stevens
electrical capacity, and replacing the high school
pool filters.
The renovations chosen for the referendum
are those that meet state EXCEL restrictions and
would save BH-BL the most money by conserving energy
and avoiding repair bills on aging systems, St. Onge
says. “The Pashley boilers are so old we can’t get
parts for them anymore, and we spent more than
$10,000 in 2005-06 just on repairs to keep that
school heated,” she notes. “It’s painful having to
pay that much money to keep antiquated boilers
running, but replacing the heating system will cost
nearly $2 million, which is why the Board hopes to
use state EXCEL funds for this.”
Lakehill Road land is second
proposition
The school district is currently
negotiating to buy a parcel of land listed as 3
Lakehill Road in the town of Ballston. The parcel is
undeveloped and located back behind several existing
homes at the very eastern end of Lakehill, with an
access strip out to the highway at #3 Lakehill. The
parcel borders on Fireman’s Grove to the southeast
and on land already owned by the school district for
its bus garage and Stevens Elementary to the west.
School board members have placed four
stipulations on the purchase of this land: the sale
must be approved by the voters on March 1, the land
and closing costs can total no more than $98,000,
local highway authorities must approve use of the
land for access by school buses, and the pending
sale of other district land off Swaggertown Road
must be completed.
“It’s very rare that land adjacent to one
of our schools comes on the market,” says
BH-BL superintendent Jim Schultz. “We’ve been
looking for a way to redesign the traffic pattern at
Stevens for years to make it safer, so the Board of
Education is pretty excited about this opportunity.”
Planning for growth
Schultz notes that several new housing
developments have sprung up in the school district
in the past few years. “After a long period of
stable enrollment, we’ve now surpassed 3,500
children for the first time in 20 years, and I
predict more community growth is coming,” he says.
“It’s our job to be ready and to always be thinking
long term, so that’s what the school board has in
mind with this proposition.”
If the Lakehill Road land purchase is
successful, Schultz expects the district would ask
its architect to come up with possible options for
redesigning traffic patterns and parking at the bus
garage and Stevens Elementary perhaps in 2008.
Stevens is the district’s oldest school,
built in 1931 when no one envisioned today’s traffic
needs. It has limited parking space and no room to
separate car and bus traffic for safety. Another
long term district goal is space to enlarge the
neighboring bus garage. The existing garage lacks
training space and its bus repair bays are so narrow
and low that parts of the ceiling have had to be
removed so that buses can fit onto the lift for
repairs.
The polls will be open on March 1 from 7:00
AM to 9:00 PM in the BH-BL High School gym on
Lakehill Road.
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