Malverne school board to ask for $14.1 mil

Malverne taxpayers will have yet another voting day in November.

Following unanimous approval by the Board of Education to present taxpayers with two bond propositions, Malvernites will head to the polls on Nov. 16 to decide the fate of two school buildings and a proposed athletic complex.

After two years of evaluation and research, the school district’s Education Facilities Task Force — created to inspect buildings and grounds, and to prepare a comprehensive capital improvement plan — presented final recommendations to the board at its Sept. 14 meeting: a $9.9 million education bond and a $4.2 million facilities bond.

The task force, comprising 31 parents, community members and staff members, recommended major repairs and improvements at the district’s aging elementary school buildings. After touring each facility and comparing it with others, task force members concluded that both the Maurice W. Downing and Davison Avenue elementary school buildings, build in 1929 and 1921, respectively, are in urgent need of modernization.

This year’s elementary-school-system reorganization was further impetus for the task force’s recommendations, according to Superintendent Dr. James Hunderfund, who said Downing and Davison are incompatible with 2010 learning standards. “These buildings are approaching a hundred years,” Hunderfund recently told the Herald. “You really have to do something to make these buildings usable for the 21st century.”

The education bond, or Proposition 1, is a priority for the district, according to board member Gina Genti. Without bond approval, the district will not be able to complete its planned 2011-12 move of the fifth grade from the middle school to Davison. Genti noted that the district will only pursue Proposition 2, the facilities bond — which pertains primarily to fixing up spaces used in the middle and high schools for phys. ed. and athletics — if voters approve both bonds.

Hunderfund said he is confident that they will. “I’m optimistic about the possibility of it passing,” he said, “and what I’ve stressed is that no time is a good time to ask people to finance anything ... so you have to go when the needs are obvious.”

And, the superintendent added, the project is timely: Hunderfund expects to receive competitive bids on the project. “We’ll get our money’s worth,” he said.

The last time Malverne taxpayers approved a bond for school improvements was 1979, and the total then was $1.5 million.

If voters were to approve both bonds, for a total of $14.1 million, Malverne taxpayers would pay about $8.5 million in borrowing costs throughout the length of the bond — which would likely be 20 years — and the remaining $5.6 million, or just under 40 percent, would come from the state in the form of infrastructure aid, according to Hunderfund.

With the passage of Proposition 1, Downing would potentially receive a 4,795-square-foot building addition, a roof replacement, cafeteria renovations, kitchen and ADA upgrades, exterior door replacements and more, at a cost of about $3.75 million. Davison would get a 9,908-square-foot addition, a science lab, an instrumental music practice space, exterior wall repairs and more, at a cost of about $6.1 million.

If Proposition 2 passes, the boys’ and girls’ lockers rooms at Howard T. Herber Middle School would undergo a $130,200 renovation. Malverne High School would see about $4.1 million in upgrades, including soccer field modifications, bleacher and sound system replacements, tennis and basketball court reconstructions, a field irrigation system and artificial turf at the football field.

“We put a minimal amount of money out for a vote,” Hunderfund said. “I mean, this is not eighty million dollars. This is a minimal, priority amount that we really feel, as a committee and as a board, [is] needed.”

For more information, visit malverne.k12.ny.us or email scolaitis@malverne.k12.ny.us.

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