Mahopac School Bd. Passes Capital Project Bond Props

By Holly Crocco

The Mahopac School Board on March 12 approved several propositions to be placed on the May 19 ballot, to be voted on by the community during the annual budget vote and board election.

Propositions two and four were unanimously approved.

Proposition two authorizes the district to bond $1.6 million to purchase various school buses and related equipment, continuing its ongoing fleet replacement cycle.

Proposition four, which inflicts no addition cost to taxpayers, authorizes the district spend $12.5 million to construct alterations and improvements to various district buildings including bathroom renovations, select roof replacement, HVAC upgrades, and replacement of the gymnasium floor and gymnasium divider curtain at Lakeview Elementary. About $5.2 million will be used from the district’s capital reserves to cover the proposal.

Trustee Tanner McCracken was the lone “no” vote for proposition five, which authorizes the district to bond $8 million to make upgrades to address lighting systems, audio systems, drapery and rigging at the high school auditorium, as well as air conditioning upgrades and practice field lighting replacement. It also includes HVAC upgrades, and playground replacements at Austin Road and Fulmar Road elementary schools.

Proposition six – which passed 5-4 after being hotly debated – authorizes the district to bond $10.5 million for the construction of a 500-seat home-side grandstand and a 100-seat visitor-side grandstand at the high school, as well as replacement of the existing field at the Falls School with synthetic turf, construction of home and away dugouts, batting enclosures, bullpens, fencing, field lighting, and backstop fencing.

The project also includes concrete pads for portable bleachers, permanent elevated grandstand bleachers with press boxes, scoreboards, and pedestrian walkways at both locations.

Proposition six can only be successful if propositions four and five pass.

“I go into grocery stores every week in Mahopac and I walk our neighborhoods, and my neighbors are telling me they are getting crushed by the school taxes,” said McCracken. “I believe strongly in a strong education system for our kids, but I also believe in having an affordable community. And there are wants and there’s needs, and I believe this proposition has more wants than needs for our district.”

Trustee Lucy Massafra noted that all the board was doing during the meeting was agreeing to put the questions on the ballot for voters.

“The community has the opportunity to decide if they want the propositions to continue,” she said. “These are like a house. If you don’t take care of your house every year or every so many years, everything will start to deteriorate and fall apart, and this is a decision that the community can make to bring our campuses to the next level.”

Trustee Ben DiLullo said the district needs to get its priorities straight.

“We need to be competitive in special education, we need to be competitive in our Pathways program… maybe we need to hire a business director at some point,” he said.

DiLullo noted that the district is proposing a budget with a 0 percent tax increase. However, if proposition six passes, it will cost taxpayers $9.27 a month, or $111 a year – which will go specifically to the projects designated, not to general education needs.

Rather, he said the district should increase the budget 2 percent, which will cost taxpayers $15 a month or $184 a year – but those funds can be used to serve all students.

“Do we have our priorities right? No we don’t,” he said. “That is an investment in our children, not a vanity project for the president of the board.”

Trustee Christopher Harrigan disagreed.

“It’s not a vanity project, it’s to bring this project in line with other districts like Brewster and Somers,” he said. “Having fields at the Falls Academy, fixing those fields that have horrible drainage, and the turf that goes down would be able to accommodate more sports than just baseball and softball. You’d be able to put a lot more teams out there if it’s turf.”

Board President Michael Mongon also defended the proposition.

“This is anything but a vanity project,” he said. “I’ve been in this community a long time. And I’ve watched our children play in mud for a good portion of that… It’s a project that is trying to do something that’s not only for our school community and our athletes.”

Trustee Jennifer Travis said there is a better use for those tax dollars.

“We don’t have space for sensory rooms … we are busting at the seams in our buildings and we have to look ahead,” she said. “I can appreciate athletes needing the ball field – I do, but I think we need to educate our students first.”

One resident said she understands the desire to save money, but that delaying repairs or upgrades will cost taxpayers more in the long run.

“Right now, it’s costing us more because we have to go out to neighboring district schools to play our games because we can’t play on our fields,” she said. “This is safety. This is not just about athletics.”

Former school board member Adam Savino criticized the board for touting a 0 percent budget increase, but spending millions specifically on athletic upgrades.

“When are we going to go back to budgeting to benefit all the students, not just specific groups, special topics, and do what’s right?” he asked. “The fields outside are horrible, they need to go; $10 million? Not so much. But a 0 percent increase – what is that doing down the road?”

Harrigan, Massafra, Mongon, and Trustees Nicole Iacono and Kyle Potter voted in favor of the proposition; McCracken, DiLullo, Travis, and Lisa Carway voted no.