HF-FMCSD capital project vote date March 28
Because they have brought in experts early, the scope of the work for a planned 2023-24 capital project for the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District capital project continues to change.
Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy briefed the Board of Education on the project at its Dec. 21 meeting, and noted that not only has the date the community will vote on the project changed — it’s now March 28 — the price has too.
About a month ago when first brought to the board, the expected price was just over $36 million. Now it’s at about $44 million.
That’s, Sheboy said this week, because of a clarification of construction costs, and, by putting a construction management firm (Triton) in place early, the district knows all of the steps that will need to be taken before the project work is done.
For instance, he said, new HVAC systems are needed, and to do that, significant electrical work is needed first. Another example is that while the district was looking at some roof “refurbishment”, there may be some cases where replacing roofs is necessary. At the meeting, Board President Anne Lawless added that removing rock underneath the property of the Fort Montgomery Elementary School is expected, yet they don’t know exactly how much rock they’ll be dealing with.
The project includes creating additional space within the Fort Montgomery Elementary School, a parking lot expansion there, and the aforementioned HVAC work. The Highland Falls Intermediate School will also have HVAC work done, as well as roofing and parking lot drainage work. O’Neill High School will have roofing, HVAC and kitchen work done.
(The BOE has talked about the project at many of it’s recent meetings. They are all available to watch via a YouTube link at www.hffmcsd.org.)
Sheboy said that it is better to plan for the more expensive work while at the same time hoping the various components of the project will cost less.
Sheboy told the board that despite the price increase, the time is still right to do the work because of the high rate of state aid the district gets, debt falling off for the district, and the knowledge that if many things are fixed in a capital project they’ll have to be fixed one-by-one out of the district’s annual budget.
The district has $6.5 million in the bank to help pay for the project, and gets 83 cents back on every dollar spent from New York State.
“We’ve spent a lot of time being frugal to get to the point where we can do these projects,” the superintendent said. He said the board will continue to be frugal as the project progresses, “maximizing the aid-ability of every part of the project”.
