Community Member View
Eastchester School’s Bond Vote “Due Diligence�
Martha Watson, 02/01/07
This is a summary of available information with regard to the upcoming school bond vote. All but one
document are available on the district’s web site www.eastchester.k12.ny.us under “Roof & Fire
Alarm Project�. Also referenced in this summary is the “Five Year Capital Plan� document, dated
08/11/06. This can be obtained at Eastchester’s Board of Education’s (BOE) offices.
In general, the volume of information/paper is overwhelming. However, I forged ahead and compared
numbers, inspection reports and recommendations from the various documents available. This is my attempt
at presenting the available facts in an unemotional, straightforward way. Ultimately, capital expenditures will
need to be made. It is simply a matter of whether or not a prudent, well thought out spending plan has been
made to the community. Two of the documents on the district’s web site summarize the proposed
work and anticipated costs requested in the upcoming bond vote. These two documents, titled Major Work
Items & Budgets and Bond Summary of Costs have essentially the same financial information and these
figures are shown in the attached report under the column of “Bond Vote�.
The BOE contracted with the architecture firm of KG&D to develop a five year capital plan. This Five Year
Capital Plan (as it is titled, is available at BOE) defines and prioritizes required work to manage the districtâ
€™s capital needs. It assigns priorities of 1 through 5 to each project; priority 1 would be addressed in
year 1, priority 2 in year 2 and so on. This document’s financial information is shown in the attached
report/spreadsheet under the column of “5 Yr Plan, Priority 1�. However, in an attempt to keep my
comparisons of the reports equal, I have also included in this report roofing repairs at the High School,
assigned a priority of 2 at a cost of $1,999,201. The third column in the attached report, labeled â
€œWatskyâ€� shows the financial information reported in the Consultant (Watsky) Roof Report, also
available on the web-site. Once again, in an attempt to keep my comparisons of the reports equal, I have
carried over “fire alarm upgrade/replacement� figures from the “5 Year Plan�, as the Watsky
Report consisted of anticipated roofing costs. This report was generated by Watsky Associates for KG&D.
Observations to consider when deciding whether or not to approve the proposed Bond:
• Actual wording of the Bond, when you step into the voting booth will be “ . . . the Board of
Education of Eastchester . . . is hereby authorized to partially reconstruct and construct improvements to all
District school buildings and sites and to expend therefore an amount not to exceed $5,400,000 . . .�
This was sent home in a mailing to Eastchester residents by the BOE. No mention is made of state-provided
Excel Aid that will be used to reduce the cost of this project to the taxpayers by $913,951 and no mention
that this Bond Proposition is for the district’s roofing or fire alarm project(s).
• Vague wording of the bond could cause one to question how the approved monies will actually be
spent. For an example, Bronxville is also floating a bond and the wording on their ballot includes a statement
that the funds will be used for the proposed roofing projects and also references Excel State Aid that
Bronxville will receive. This information is available from Bronxville’s BOE.
• Dollar overages from this Bond Proposition will be added to the District’s General Funds. These
additional funds could be used to defray existing district costs, or be used to hire additional teachers (which
would then show up on next year’s school budget under salaries) or be used for additional capital
projects, such as central air conditioning, which would then increase next year’s budget under utility
expenses. However, if overages were rolled into the District’s Capital Budget, these monies could be
used to defray inevitable future capital projects and associated bonds.
• Another example from Bronxville’s upcoming bond proposition is that they have rolled money over
from their general fund into their existing capital fund to further defray the cost of their roofing project. What
monies exist in Eastchester’s general and capital funds that could be applied to our roofing/fire alarm
project to defray costs? No mention is made, in any of the publications I have received, of any existing
funds being applied to this project.
• Additionally (as an example) Bronxville’s Bond is only for a short-term 1 year loan to cover the
Excel Aid amount until it is received from the State, thus saving the taxpayer’s interest by paying interest
on a 1 year loan vs. financing the amount over 15 years. Also, the balance needed for Bronxville’s
roofing project, not covered by the Excel Aid and their existing general and capital budgets is being voted on
as a two year school budget increase/addition. This saves the taxpayers significant costs in interest due to
not taking out a long term loan.
.... for more and full letter, click here. For supporting spreadsheet, click here