Pine Plains BOE considers $3 million school bus facility

Stanfordville — The Pine Plains Central School District (PPCSD) Board of Education unanimously approved three propositions for May’s district vote during a meeting, Thursday, March 18, at Cold Spring Early Learning Center. The first proposition approved is for the school district to purchase four new buses. “Two 65-passenger or larger school buses, each at a maximum estimated cost of $106,471; and two 30-passenger or larger school buses, each at a maximum estimated cost of $48,151, including necessary equipment, for an aggregate maximum estimated cost of $309,244,” the meeting’s agenda read.The proposition on the agenda also stated that the $309,244 sum, “or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be raised by the levy of a tax upon the taxable property of said school district and collected in annual installments as provided in Section 416 of the Education Law.”During his report earlier in the meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Michael Goldbeck said that the district would be able to finance the purchase out of its fund balance, “without the need for borrowing.”The second proposition passed, if approved by district voters in May, will authorize PPCSD to construct a new bus maintenance facility at Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center — including 18 new loading/unloading spaces — at a maximum estimated cost of $3,051,000.Approximately $2,230,942, “the amount of money remaining in the District-wide Renovations, Reconstruction and Construction Capital Reserve Fund” — would be transferred “from the capital reserve fund to the capital fund for such purpose,” with the remainder bonded by the district, the agenda stated.The proposition ends with the condition, “providing that such bonds shall be payable from amounts to be levied in annual installments on taxable real property of the district, pledging the faith and credit of the district for the payment of the principal of and interest on said bonds.”The district’s expectation is that no borrowing will be necessary if the voters approve the establishment of a new capital reserve fund (the third proposition), Goldbeck said after the meeting.Earlier in the meeting, Michael Fanning from Mosaic Associates Architects and James Connors of The Chazen Companies’ engineering department made a presentation on the proposed bus facility. A floor plan provided to the board indicated a new bus garage northeast of Seymour Smith, below Factory Lane; the aforementioned new loading/unloading area also north of Seymour Smith with an entrance off of Academy Street; and the existing bus garage (also on Seymour Smith property, just east of the school building) to be repurposed.Connors specified that the new loading/unloading area would bring the buses off of Academy Street, where they “stop and sit … while the students are loading and unloading.”“I discussed this plan with [Pine Plains town Supervisor Brian Coons], and he endorsed what we had in mind for two reasons: First of all, it’s nothing new to that neighborhood to have a maintenance facility; but more importantly, by reconfiguring the loading, it does take the buses off of Academy Street, which has been a source of complaint to the town,” district Superintendent Martin Handler said.The third proposition approved by the board — as stated in the agenda — would allow the district to establish the “District-wide Renovations, Reconstruction and Construction Reserve Fund,” designated “for the purpose of paying for all or part of the renovation, reconstruction and construction of district buildings, including planning costs, site work, renovation, reconstruction and construction costs and associated costs.”The proposition stipulates the ultimate amount of such funds at $5 million, “to be transferred from unassigned appropriations in the general fund to the [proposed fund] over a period of five years.”Voter approval would be required for any expenditures out of this reserve, Goldbeck said.Before the propositions were voted on, Handler stated that the district’s plan “is to present a budget in May, to the taxpayers, with a budget-to-budget increase of less than 1 percent and a tax levy increase of zero.”“Now we’re able to do that and do the bus maintenance facility and buy the buses and all of these things because we have some fund balance that we [are able] to spend,” he said. The March 18 school board agenda can be accessed via BoardDocs on the Board of Education page on www.ppcsd.org.