By:Anthony Rifilato
Baldwin residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of a $26.9 million bond referendum last week, setting the stage for an extensive project that will upgrade the Baldwin School District's infrastructure over the next three years.
For the past year, the Board of Education has proposed bonding as a way to address needed repairs throughout the district in light of serious financial challenges such as state changes to building aid. After numerous meetings and informative sessions, most Baldwin residents supported the initiative, including all of the districts' PTAs.
"All of our PTAs voted to fully vote in favor of the bond referendum without any hesitation," said Baldwin Council of PTAs President Dorinda Spinelli. "All of the schools are going to benefit, and it's for the future of our kids."
Of the 743 residents who voted at the high school on Feb. 4, and including absentee ballots, 465 voted in favor of the bond and 278 voted against it.
"We felt very good that the community endorsed the recommendation of the board," said Edward Cigna, assistant superintendent for business and administrative services. "We now have a mechanism that's going to help relieve some of the impact of the tax burden."
With the bond, local taxes will rise 2 1/2 percent, and the average annual cost for the entire bond will be less than $138 per year for a home valued at $300,000. School officials maintained that taxes stood to be significantly higher if the work was included in the regular school budgets over the years, citing higher costs due to inflation, not enough funding from the state, and other factors.
But it was increased taxes and other concerns that prompted many to vote against the bond. One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said that in addition to higher taxes, the school district is bonding while there are still outstanding bonds from years past, such as one for the expansion of the middle school.
"I think it's ridiculous," one man said of the bond. "They haven't even paid off the other one."
Cigna explained that some bonds are still being repaid, but that they will expire during the course of the current bond, and in the long run, bonding makes financial sense. "If you wait, then you delay work that is really needed," he said.
One woman, who would not give her name, said she was not buying school officials' explanations for the bond and was voting against it. "They say it's because of state aid," she said. "It's just an excuse."
The board began looking into alternative methods of funding building projects in 2002, after the state changed its building aid formula. Instead of funding school districts for building projects with 54 percent of a project's cost within a year after it's undertaken, the state now reimburses a district for about 1/15th of the total cost per year for 15 years or more. That would have meant that some necessary projects would be drawn out, and some may not have been addressed for years.
"[The bond] is necessary," said Doug Dye, president of the Baldwin Educational Assembly. "It's a lot of things that need to be done. All that is going to happen if you put it off is [they will] cost more money."
On Wednesday, several senior citizens who identified themselves as 50-year Baldwin residents, and who had just voted in favor of the bond, explained why they chose to support the district's initiative. "It's meant to get some needed improvements throughout the district," said one woman who declined to be identified. "It will save money in the long run, which is what Baldwin residents need."
Her friend expressed another reason for supporting the bond. "You have to think about what happened in Roosevelt and how the schools there were neglected," the woman said. "That can't happen here. We want to keep the schools good."
