Polls open on $123M plan to overhaul schools
Vote at Riverhead High School 2 comments below
Taxpayers in the Riverhead School District began trickling into Riverhead High School just after 6 a.m. Tuesday as booths opened for a district-wide referendum vote on a proposed $122.9 million schools overhaul.
The price tag, to be paid over 23 years, would pay for expanding all of the district's buildings except the one on Roanoke Avenue, which would become a central administrative building, officials said.
A total of 53 new classrooms are proposed under the plan. The 25 classrooms currently housed in portable facilities will be phased out, officials said. The only portables the district plans to keep are the eight newest ones at the high school. They would be used for the Star Academy, formerly known as the alternative school. New music rooms are planned for all the schools, as well as new ball fields, 10 new science labs for the high school and a new gym for the middle school.
Polls close at 9 p.m.
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2 comments found
School Overhaul? : 2/9/2010
Another cloud 9 adventure accomplishing little or nothing to an already failed school system. Why is it a failed school system? Just try and get your child into an Ivy League college or even a high standards college on Long Island. Our school systems are funded by taxpayers who also are taxed for a mandate for teacher's pension funds that has just about made living on Long Island impossible. And then you have school administrators being paid $250,000/yr. Just what is it that they do that is worth
that kind of compensation? Surely nothing that justifies such an absurdity.. Incidentally, the man who orchestrated that mandate for teacher's pension funds that requires Long Islanders to pay by increasing,increasing,and ever increasing taxes,is Sheldon Silvers. A man of questionable ethics and an allegiance to the teacher's Union. He is from Manhattan's 64th district and is the Speaker of the NY State Assembly which he runs with an iron fist .
His conduct in the Michael Boxley Case, alone,should have removed him from office. I strongly advise all Long Islander's to research this man's record in Albany. You owe it to your future on L.I.,if you have one. And you might want to ask your local representative what they know about Sheldon Silver. The exodus from NYS in the last 10 years is close to 10% of its population,the highest in the nation. Although we have many good and highly competent political leaders on Long Island like Steve Levy, Steve Israel,and Peter King,to name a few, there are far too many political cronies on Long Island who do very little in defending the welfare of their constituencies. And ,if Long Islanders continue to accept the status quo, they risk the loss of their homes and their present way of life. And if you need any motivation for changing that status quo, look carefully at your next tax bill, I am sure it will motivate you.
Higher Taxes : 2/9/2010
Higher taxes? just what we all need in this ghost town.
I'd take a broken down school over bloated teachers pay any day. Get rid of the multiple do-nothing, over-lap administrators who earn $100,000 plus a year and put that money towards improvements. A quality education begins with quality teachers, (and we have a few), not some new structures. Some of the most sought after educational structures are over 100 years old and they are beautiful because they've been maintained properly. Fire this maintenance department for their ineptness at maintaining our school buildings and grounds.Student population is dwindling as I speak. You want to raise my property taxes so you can all feel good in a new school, I think not. Any fool who votes for this expansion has rocks in their head for brains and I'd like to sale them some swamp land in Louisiana. Get real people. We don't live in Pleasant ville. We live in a crime ridden, high taxed, nepotistic, behind closed door dealing town/school board fiasco ghost township. These crooks who tout that our children educational needs aren't being met, are the same ones using our children as shields to hide behind, to pilfer our pockets and bank accounts. Wake the F@#$^%&%* UP.
