If voters in the City of Albany agree, students returning to classes at Albany High in the fall will go back to a building that no longer has a leaky roof.
A community forum at the school provided the backdrop as the City School District of Albany launched a campaign to get the word out about how the February 9th vote on a $180 million proposal to rebuild and expand Albany High School is different from the one that voters turned down in November.
City School District of Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard welcomed about two dozen residents who turned out for the first of two "community forums," scheduled along with four dates to tour the crumbling high school, in hopes of convincing the community to fast-track the scaled-back project and offer citizens an opportunity to ask questions. "Turnout was light, but I think that we have to do a better job of informing people about this new plan. What I'm concerned about is that people think we're just gonna roll off the same thing, and I don't think there's an urgency of knowing that we've actually done a tremendous amount of work."
Ellen Roach, elected to a seat on the Albany Board of Education in November, was the only candidate opposed to the original Albany High expansion plan narrowly defeated in the general election. She says the board took two messages away from that vote: people in the city feel building a new school would raise taxes that are already too high, but those residents also agree there is a need for a plan to rebuild the school that resolves the current building's structural problems. So changes taxpayers called for are changes made in the new proposal: "We chose not to build a new auditorium. We'll remodel the existing on instead. We're not building a new gym. We're not building a new artificial turf field, and we've decided to not use ceramic tiles throughout the entire building, for example, only in the front hall. We're not putting completely new furniture in the entire building. There were some things in the old project that were certainly frills, and I and the other board members made sure they were cut out. Right now we've got a project that's leaner, yet still meets the requirements for what the students need, because, when the roof is leaking, when the heating system's got some classrooms at 50 degrees and some classrooms at 80 degrees, it's really impeding the ability of the school to do a basic job teaching."
Conservative activist Joe Sullivan would like the re-vote postponed to the next November election, and supports the idea that all fiscal votes on school board issues be held only in November... "...and that there be no re-votes. Once there's a vote at a general election that the results are final, and not to allow the school board to come back and browbeat the voters with a second and third and a fourth vote at obscure times when most of the polling places aren't open and the turnout will be lower, because that type of procedure favors school board supporters, because most people don't tend to come out at those off-dates like February or March or May."
Sullivan fears those who would be most impacted by higher taxes as a result of passed measures wouldn't cast their vote. But district officials say they've already been working on educating voters and getting absentee ballots out in advance of February 9th.
Officials at the community forum noted that date is the latest they could hold a decisive election in order to begin fixing the roof on time so it could be completed by September.
As for taxes, Assistant Superintendent for Business Bill Hogan offers revised numbers: "On the original proposal, a home assessed for $150,000 would have resulted in an average increase in the tax bill of $42 over the life of the project, that number has been reduced from $42 down to $19. That's actually over the 30 years of the bonds for the project."
Construction during the rebuilding effort would be done in stages to minimize impact on the students while ensuring their safety. The student body would be shielded from ongoing construction. The phases are carefully timed to maximize the use of state aid to lighten the burden on taxpayers.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan believes the revised rebuilding plan is "achievable." "I would rather use the most cost-effective way to do this, the way that it costs the taxpayers the least amount of money, than having to do something on an emergency basis that doesn't have the opportunity to take as good advantage of state matching dollars, because we didn't plan for the future."
The next community forum is planned for Tuesday, Feb. 2nd. Superintendent Vanden Wyngaard wants word to spread. "We're hoping all these folks that are here will tell their friends and we'll continue to do this in the month of February."
The Feb. 9 vote will be held citywide from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. - Voting locations, and more information on the high school project, are available at the district website at www.albanyschools.org. School tours have been scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19; from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 25; from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6; and from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8.
