Voters say no to $45 million bond

Voters in the Lynbrook did not show their support for a proposed $45 million bond Tuesday night that would have enabled the Lynbrook School district to make major upgrades to its high school — the oldest building still functioning as a high school on Long Island. The vote was 1,363 against the bond, and 1,049 in favor of it.

“Although the bond referendum was defeated by the voters, Lynbrook High School will strive to continue to provide the curricular support it can within the confines of the limited facilities,” said School Superintendent Dr. Melissa Burak.
Built in 1922, and there have been no major renovations to the high school since the 1970s. The district expected 22 percent of the cost of the work to come in the form of state aid, while the remaining 78 percent would have fallen to residents, translating into $347 a year for the average homeowner during the 20-year life of the bond.

Among other projects, the money would have funded construction of a 646-seat performing arts center, a state-of-the-art lab that would support the robotics program and the science, technology, engineering, arts and math (or STEAM) curriculum; and a student-support center.

District officials said that because of the scope of work that needs to be done, including it in the annual budget was not an option, because it would significantly raise taxes and potentially impact programs. Additionally, with a bond, the district would be able to take advantage of low interest rates to reduce the cost to taxpayers.

"It’s disappointing because a lot of time and effort went into this,” said School Board President Bill Belmont. “A lot of thought went into creating what was a project that was going to benefit the community as a whole and not just the students. What also is upsetting, I think, the number of votes … it was around 2,400 people and that’s still nowhere near the number of people that should be participating."

Belmont said that this district did not propose the bond referendum with any alternatives in mind, and does not currently have a backup plan.

“This was the opportunity, and we had made that clear throughout this process,” he said. “There’s no immediate plans, right now, for anything else. That doesn’t mean — we don’t know what tomorrow holds, but there’s no plans. There’s no one going into the back room right now to revamp this into something else.”

This story was updated on Wednesday, March 16, at 4:48 p.m.