Rye Schools Bond Vote: YES, YES, YES
The results for the $80 million Rye school bond are in:
Yes, Yes,Yes – all three components of the bond passed.
The result will be official when certified by the County, but the unofficial results of today's Capital Bond vote are as follows:
Proposition 1 (Critical Infrastructure $70.8m)
Yes: 2,199 or 52%
No: 2,027 or 48%
Proposition 2 (Educational Improvements $9.1m)
Yes 2,120 or 50.3%
No 2,094 or 49.7%
Proposition 3 (Capital Reserve Fund)
Yes 2,438 or 58.1%
No 1,756 or 41.8%
A total of 361 absentee ballots were received.
42 voters voted by affidavit.
In an email, Superintendent of Schools Eric Byrne, Ed.D. said: "Thank you to the over 4,200 members of the Rye community who came out to vote today. This represents one of the largest turnouts in recent School District votes in Rye."
The first school bond was defeated on March 12th by a mere ten (yes, 10) votes.
With all due respect to the headline writer, the Rye School Bond Vote outcome was more of a “MAYBE, MAYBE, MAYBE.” Going forward, the Rye School Board has a fiduciary responsibility to its students and all Rye taxpayers to see the funds entrusted to them are wisely spent and carefully managed. For example, was the current “new” high school football field adequately cared for over the years? And what exactly will be done with what appears to be an extraordinary capital reserve fund? Superintendent of Schools Eric Byrne, Ed.D. must leave an academic legacy beyond raisings funds and spending money to promote a Capital Bond Vote.
Nick,
I have no problems with your argument except to answer your 1 question. Synthetic Turf fields have about a 10 year life span at best. Rys field was put in back in 2007 after floods severely damaged the original put in around 2003. Most colleges replace them after 1 or 2 years. Major colleges after 1. Pro teams replace them several times in a season. Of course they all have millions to spend on their teams. I know this past football season watching 1 of the games at field level in the end zone and could see major tears in the turf. Kids could get seriously injured. Rye does a great job taking care of the turf. In the past when flood watch and warnings came and major storms forcasted RHS athletes assisted the janitors with getting the cover on the field. With so many teams and youth programs using the field the turfs lifespan is short. Also only turf field Rye has. When it was grass it was basically a mud field due to so much use and not enough time to do proper maintenance.
Question: why did the field have to be paid for by the bond when the original, along with the lights were paid for by very wealthy donars?
So today Cuomo signed the new sales tax increase into effect as of August 1st 2019. Sales tax is applied to almost everything Rye homeowners purchase to maintain their homes and provide for their families. Contrary to widespread false media reports (yes that’s you Journal News ) the increase is not 1% – nor anything remotely close to it. The increase is 14%.
And now that “the bonds” are safely passed throughout Westchester, Mr. Cuomo pulled out his long dormant tax raising pen. No expense cuts are naturally being proposed.
Does everyone now understand?