Beacon Votes Yes to School Improvements from Capital Project - A Trend With Other Districts

Hot off the Beacon City School District's Twitter account! Beaconites voted yesterday to approve the Capital Project, which includes designing a modernized science room at Rombout Middle School, and at other schools, ripping out old carpet from several classrooms, fixing doors, turf for sports, and other improvements. Votes were 480 Yes to 98 No. When this writer voted at 2 pm, the total number of voters was at 95. It was a long election day. Read more about the Capital Project here.

Nina Schutzman of the Poughkeepsie Journal, who covers education for the newspaper, looked at election results for the Beacon City School District, Red Hook Central School District and Spackenkill district, and noticed that this year produced a higher voter turnout than other years, as well as majority votes of Yes in these districts to approve their Capital Projects. Voters approved the Red Hook Central School District's $10 million capital plan with 1,637 Yes to 615 No, according to Nina. Quoting the Spackenkill's Board of Education President, Nina reported that their $24 million capital plan passed, 882 Yes to 385 No.

Beacon Superintendent Matt Landahl tweeted his approval: "The Beacon City School District capital project passed today with 480 yes votes and 98 no votes. Thanks to the community for the support of the project!" According to Dr. Landahl, the next steps for the district include going through a review process by the state, and seeking bids. "Most construction will take place during the summer of 2019. We put out for bids around January 2019 give or take. The state has a lengthy review process before we begin but the planning work with architects, engineers, district staff and board members begins immediately."