WURTSBORO  — The Pine Bush Central School District interim-Superintendent Amy Brockner and Assistant Superintendent Joseph Lenz detail the Capital Improvement Project before the Mamakating Town Board of Tuesday night.

The opportunity for the Pine Bush and Circleville  school communities to vote for this project is coming up on March 4 at the Pine Bush High School and Circleville Elementary School respectively. The project comes in two propositions.

Proposition 1

Costing $52,260,000, Brockner described this as “not the pretty stuff.”

Proposition 1 was presented as everything the school needs to improve in their infrastructure, which includes the following:

Heating and cooling improvements

Roof restorations

Fire alarm upgrades

Ceiling, floor and window replacements

Elevator replacements

New athletic complex at Circleville Middle School

“It is important for us to have that [athletic complex] in Prop 1 because those things that are in there are at zero dollar tax impact to the taxpayer,” stated Brockner.

Lenz referred to the roof restorations that while they don’t have leaking roofs, they are trying to stay ahead of that.

“That means we don’t have to replace ceiling tiles, replace walls,” Lenz exampled. “We avoid those things and in fact most of our roofs will be restorations rather than replacements.”

He noted that this would come at a lower cost as well.

Proposition 2

Costing $27,035,000, this proposition was described by Lenz as the “more exciting things.”

He highlighted, for example, that classrooms are impacted such as updating art and science classrooms.

“That will be about a dozen classrooms that will get updated and really start to look like  how we want the classrooms to look for the future,” stated Lenz.

The gymnasiums and cafeterias will also see air conditioning.

These spaces were chosen on account that the past summer saw the installation of a window air conditioner in every classroom.

It would also add to being able to maintain the temperature in those spaces all year long.

Out of the $27,035,000 cost this would make up $10 million. Changes for this proposition also include:

Location signs

Gym floor resurfacing at the high school

A full renovation of the auditorium at the high school

Completion of Lonergan Field

According to Lenz, the press box and bleachers have “definitely seen better days.”

“We would also add restrooms underneath the bleachers as well as locker rooms which will make it so it’s less of a management thing [like students climbing under the bleachers],” explained Lenz. “Proposition 2 does require that Proposition 1 pass. So Proposition 2 cannot be successful without Proposition 1.”

Their thought behind this is because they want to take care of the “behind-the-scenes” underpinning because they “cannot function without roofs and updating electrical items.”

The cost of this overall would be about $60 a year or $5 a month. This data comes from their research of $400 being the average home in Pine Bush. Specific statistics are available on the pinebushschools.org website.

In response to a question by Town Supervisor Michael Robbins, Lenz confirmed that the cost to taxpayers is not based on assessments, but full value of homes.

“This is looking at full value and applying that number across the towns,” clarified Lenz. “We have a fiscal advisor that does this work behind the scenes and they looked at all seven of our entities to find that point at which these numbers [the statistics] are absolutely accurate.”

More information about these Propositions can be found at pinebushschools.org and questions can be emailed to communications@pinebushschools.org.