As the East Hampton School District begins over the next few years to retire the debt from improvement and expansion bonds that built the high school science wing, cafeteria, and new district offices, it finds itself at what the assistant superintendent for business is calling “an ideal time and a once-in-a-generation time to be able to undertake a significant amount of work” with a “net zero” impact to taxpayers.
That was the pitch last Thursday when the district held the first of four workshops to educate voters and gather ideas as it prepares to put a $64 million bond on the May 2026 ballot.
“Public school buildings represent the single largest investment of local taxpayer funds in this community,” the business official, Sam Schneider, said at the workshop. “Any of you who own your own house . . . will know that periodic maintenance and renovation is absolutely required for buildings to maintain structural integrity. . . . The windows aren’t going to get better, the boiler is never going to get more efficient or more operable, and the roof is never going to stop leaking.”
In short, the district’s needs vis-a-vis its facilities will not decrease, but without appropriate attention at the right time, the costs to address them will increase exponentially, and it will be taxpayers who foot the bill. In 2017, the district consolidated a number of older bonds and started a repayment process that “begins to wind down in 2029,” Mr. Schneider explained. “If we allow the debt to go unreplaced, what’s going to happen is there will be a temporary small reduction in an individual homeowner’s taxes — about $200 a year. I want to be clear, I am not minimizing the value of $200 . . . but the bottom line is that the windows at the middle school, for example, are not going to get better. They do not heal themselves.” That reduction in taxes that people see initially could lead to a big jump later on.
“We’re trying here to propose a bond that offers stable tax impact for voters” and avoids “peaks and valleys,” he said.
“This is a chance to chart the future for our district through extensive capital improvements with a bond that does not increase taxes,” Adam Fine, the district superintendent, said in kicking off the meeting. Whatever is ultimately included in it, “It is well within the possibility that this will be the last major construction project for the district for the next 20 years. So with that in mind, we’re looking at each project with a question: What will we need for our students to ensure that they are able to graduate college and be career-ready students between now and 2045.”
“The board of education has not made any decisions,” Mr. Fine said. “Your input is desired and imperative.”
Only a few people spoke up with suggestions. Jenn Fowkes, whose three children graduated from East Hampton High School, suggested an indoor track-and-field facility. Steve Long, who has a child at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and another at the middle school, said he’s heard from other parents that it “would be great to have an even better science lab at the middle school.” “We have no children that have ever gone through this school district, but we are committed to the importance of public education so we pay our taxes happily here,” said Gail Pellett, who founded the nonprofit ChangeHampton with her husband, Stephan Van Dam. The group created the pollinator garden and native grassland meadows at Town Hall, and Ms. Pellett suggested something similar for the high school. “These are meant as ecological models to educate the community,” she said of the Town Hall garden and meadows, both of which were built with the help of student volunteers. “We now look at the message that this school is broadcasting as we drive by on Long Lane,” she said of the school campus, which has a pollinator garden but one that can’t be seen by passers-by.
The school’s parking area, she said, “could be conceived in a wholly different sustainable and environmental way.”
The board was supportive of her ideas, but said they may not fall under the heading of major capital improvements and invited her and Mr. Van Dam to lay them out at a facilities meeting, which is where many similar efforts take shape.
Over the past year and a half, the administration has developed a solid list of projects in the “need” category: a new lockdown system for all three school buildings, the removal and replacement of all systems in the middle and high school auditoriums, track resurfacing at the high school, new windows at the middle school, new classroom bathrooms and a new kitchen at the elementary school.
At the high school campus, the district hopes to replace the gym floor, add a concession and bathrooms for outdoor athletics that are accessible to the disabled, and replace the football and baseball scoreboards, “which are at end of life.” At the middle school the goal is to renovate basement classrooms and replace the bricks’ mortar and paint and scrape the soffits “to prevent leaks and rot.”
Some projects might be removed from this list and covered by the district’s repair reserve fund instead, with voter authorization.
Should the bond be approved, next summer the district will work with an architect to create a schedule for the projects and determine the best order to complete them in. “We have to make sure that we’re only doing one major thing at a time,” he said. “We have to be sure to space them out appropriately so we’re only borrowing portions of the total — a third of the total in each successive year,” because the “2017 consolidation bond is going to fall away from taxes over a three-year period.”
By January of 2027, plans and project manuals for the first projects would be submitted to the New York State Education Department for approval. In a best-case scenario, that approval would come in six to eight weeks. Around January of 2028 the district would put the first parts of the project out to bid. Bonds for those components would be issued around March of that year, construction could begin by that July, and in September 2029 “the first payments would begin on the March 2028 bonds,” Mr. Schneider said.
Ms. Fowkes asked why there was nothing in the “wants” category on a slide Mr. Fine and Mr. Schneider showed at the meeting. “We do have a list from various people who have talked to me,” Mr. Fine said. “We just wanted to leave it blank today.”
“And I think some board members will have ideas, too,” J.P. Foster, the board president, said, “but we wanted to hear yours first.”
“We need as much feedback as we can get,” said Christina DeSanti, the board’s co-vice president.
The board hopes more people will attend future meetings or email them with ideas. Its next regular board meeting is on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the high school library. Public meetings specifically about the bond are planned for Oct. 15andNov.12at6p.m.andDec.17at 10 a.m. in the high school library.
By January, a final project will be presented to the board, which will have until early February to make adjustments. The board has to adopt the wording for the ballot proposition by March 3. Voting day is May 19.