Capital Projects Bond 2016: FAQs

Concept

What is a bond referendum?

A bond referendum is an opportunity for voters to decide if the school district may borrow money for capital projects. If the bond referendum is approved, the monies would be expended to improve our infrastructure, upgrade our fields, build flexible, research-supported, intentionally-designed learning environments, and improve the Chappaqua Public Library.

Why did the District choose to put forth a bond referendum at this time?

We have the unique opportunity for a 0% tax levy increase because of this bond and to save money in the long-term. Every child in every building will have access to new learning spaces. If we do not have a bond referendum now, we will have school budget and tax levy increases later to specifically address our aging buildings and State Education requirements. In addition, at this time interest rates are low and we expect that New York State (through Building Aid) will reimburse us for 33.6% of the cost of each approved project over the next 15 years.

Why is the bond vote being held in June and not with the budget vote, or in the fall?

The bond vote could not be held at the same time as this year's budget vote/board elections because the required SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) was not completed by the District until March 25, 2016, and then it was approved by the Board of Education at its March 30, 2016 meeting. In addition, we are required to publish the legal notice 45 days prior to the vote so the June date is the earliest possible date.

If we were to wait until the fall or even next May's school budget vote to hold the bond referendum, and if the bond were to pass, by then we would have lost a full calendar year. Planning on the projects would just begin during the summer of 2017, as opposed to most of the projects being completed during the summer and early fall of 2017, if the bond referendum were to pass on June 14, 2016.

What is the total amount being borrowed?

The proposed borrowing is $42.5 million. These funds will cover the planned/anticipated construction, architectural and engineering fees, and other related costs, and will be repaid over a period of 20 years.

Can the Board of Education increase the amount being borrowed after the vote, if this bond referendum passes?

No.

Financing

Will my taxes increase because of this bond?

No. This project is considered a "no marginal increase project." The tax levy will not increase as a result of this bond. Given the funding sources (e.g., State Building Aid, reduction of annual capital outlay of $475K, reduction in debt service payment beginning in school year 2023-24, and the sale of properties), and the structure of annual payments, residents will not have to pay additional taxes because of this bond.

What does "no marginal increase" mean?

No marginal increase means that the tax levy, or the total amount of property taxes a school district must collect to balance its budget (after accounting for all other revenue sources including state aid), will not increase as a result of the bond.

Won't taxes go up due to the additional costs of utilities and maintenance/custodial services associated with these new spaces?

Over 75% of the bond is for infrastructure and the renovating and repurposing of current spaces so the costs of utilities and maintenance/custodial services would remain about the same. The only new construction associated with this bond is the new STEAM Learning Center (about 6,300 sq. ft.) at Horace Greeley High School and the expanded children's area and new buildings in the courtyard (about 3,700 sq. ft.) at the Chappaqua Public Library. Any additional operating costs associated with these new educational spaces would be minimal, in part because of the District's long-term energy performance contract with Johnson Controls.

Why not divide the bond into several packages (e.g., public library, fields, educational upgrades, infrastructure upgrades)?

We do not want to divide residents into different factions when it comes to our children, our schools and our community.

Why borrow money to upgrade facilities as opposed to paying for upgrades through the annual budget?

Without the bond, priority capital improvements identified as "required improvements" in the 5-year Building Conditions Survey will need to be included in the annual operating budget and that will increase the annual tax levies.

If the bond referendum is defeated, will another bond be put before the voters?

Both the current Administration and Board of Education have indicated that they have no plans to reintroduce this bond in the near future.

If this bond referendum is defeated, how will the infrastructure work be completed?

Without the bond, approximately $500K to $1M will need to be budgeted each year, for at least the next five years, to address required improvements, health and safety concerns.

Scope

What is included in this bond?

There are four components to the proposed bond, (1) Educational: Indoors, (2) Educational: Outdoors, (3) Building Upgrades and Repairs, and (4) the Chappaqua Public Library.

• Global Learning Centers

  • 21st century Libraries/Media Centers at each elementary school and Greeley

• STEAM Learning Centers

  • 1 at Bell and Seven Bridges, 1 at Greeley

• Instructional Learning Centers

  • Interdisciplinary
  • Humanities

• Fields

  • Environmentally-friendly modern turf fields

    • 1 at Bell (side field)
    • 1 at Greeley (Competition Field)
  • Sprinkler Systems at Seven Bridges
  • Drainage and sod at Greeley (Field C)
  • Bathrooms near Competition Field

• Infrastructure

  • Safety ans quality-of-life concerns

    • Tripping hazards
    • Roof leaks

  • Upgrades and maintenance

    • Playground renovations
    • Greeley auditorium and room K110 upgrades
    • Driveway repaving

  • Health ans Safety concerns

    • Improperly functioning classroom doors

• Chappaqua Public Library

  • New adult quiet area and meeting space
  • New children's area and enclosed teen zone
  • Family bathrooms that are ADA compliant
  • New cafe and meeting/activity space

How were the specific projects chosen?

Some projects were initially identified by building-level committees, which includes students, teachers and administrators, while other projects were identified by the District's Facilities Committee, which includes representation from the community. These committees then met with architects to discuss building and field issues and developed appropriate responses. The Facilities Committee was involved from the beginning and throughout the project research and planning process and supports all planned projects included in the proposed bond.

Why is the Chappaqua Public Library included in this school district bond?

The Chappaqua Central School District is one of a few districts in New York State that is responsible for the operation and maintenance of a public library. The library site opened in 1978 and not much has changed structurally since. We are supporting the community's public library, its Master Plan, and its recently updated Strategic Plan in which residents told us what services and programs they would like to see the Library offer.

Why add global learning centers equipped with advanced technology, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) learning centers, and instructional learning centers?

What we have now are egg-carton school designs with individual classroom spaces that include similar seating and less flexibility for teaching and learning demands. Schools over the last 150 years were not designed with instruction in mind but rather to accommodate vast numbers of people needing an education. Confined by single classroom spaces, teachers tend to instruct from the front of the room and organize desks in one or two similar configurations.

We are seeking to build spaces to educate 21^st century students that allow different settings for different needs, and move away from the one-size-fits-all approach of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. We are seeking to build more active learning environments for teaching and learning—environments where students can safely explore their passions and are solving relevant, complex problems both individually and collaboratively by using varied approaches, are providing accurate feedback to each other, and are setting their own learning goals.

We are seeking to provide more educational spaces that have cutting-edge technology along with innovative, open floor plans to support small and large group instruction, independent study, team collaboration, project-based learning, and presentations. We anticipate that these educational spaces will allow us to extend current classroom work and to further incorporate:

• Project-based learning
• In-depth inquiry
• Formulating questions and researching
• Task-based self-directed learning
• Creativity
• Problem solving
• Multi-disciplinary projects
• Communicating work to a variety of audiences

Will staff be ready to use these new spaces?

We have been preparing teachers and staff for work in our proposed new libraries, STEAM learning centers, and multi-disciplinary instructional centers for many years now, which included extensive technology training for all staff. In addition, we have built our technology infrastructure to support using enhanced technology district-wide now and in the future.

We have provided a decade of professional development focused on active learning:

• Partnerships with outside experts including Chris Dede (Harvard), Sam Wang (Princeton), Peter Johnson (SUNY Albany), Yong Zhao (U. of Oregon), Lucy West (national staff developer), and Tri-States.
• Columbia University work with reading and writing workshop
• Ongoing learning walks through classrooms to study the nature of classroom talk, instruction, materials, student work, and nature of assessment.
• Annual learning symposium
• Teacher Action Research Program
• Innovative Fellows
• Collaboration Study Group
• Advanced Technologies Study Group
• Two-day technology training for all teachers (2014-16)
• Assessment development project
• Development of Chappaqua Thinking Standards
• Extensive professional development each summer
• Department chair retreats focused on the use of space, time and technology
• Academic summer camps (e.g. Robotics/Maker Camp)

Presently, school-based design leadership teams are working at each of our schools to develop the curriculum that will be implemented in these new, state-of-the-art learning spaces. Students, teachers, administrators, and staff developers are building curriculum while consulting with architects on the design features of the new spaces. Our professional development efforts will be expanded to include more teachers and staff through our summer institutes and across the coming school year.

How will the proposed spaces work with the existing AP curriculum?

In general, students in both AP and non-AP courses take greater advantage of the spaces and technology provided by the iLab, and the proposed learning spaces will be similar in nature. That is to say that students were more productive because they more fully used the available technology and found space to work collaboratively in greater comfort and with fewer distractions.

Currently, the Advanced Topics in College Computer Science/AP Computer Science course is focusing on software programming concepts--everything is done via a computer and screen output. These students have already taken a course in robotics, which culminates in fabricating a robot; in a STEAM lab, those skills could be extended to ATCS. With advances in robotics, engineering, and computer science, it has become easier to build devices, and program electronics other than a traditional computer, and have the time to complete the rigorous programming-based course material. If the course were in a STEAM lab, the students would be able to fabricate devices that use the programming skills they're learning in Advanced Topics in College Computer Science. An example: one of the high level programming concepts students learn about is recursive sorting algorithms. This concept is challenging to understand; however, if the students could design and build a device that physically sorts items, this concept would be more robustly understood.

AP U.S. History classes have used the iLab for different projects and activities - one on constitutional principles in which students created their own government and another gallery walk on antebellum reformers.

The AP English curriculum is skills-based and taken by students who read deeply and who enjoy insightful conversations. The flexible seating in the iLab enables students to engage in rich small group discussions. Students also can use the small rooms and write directly on the walls and glass surfaces to demonstrate their thinking to one another. In addition, the advanced technology and use of Google Docs enables students to give and receive actionable feedback, and to revise their work.  Models of student work can be quickly displayed and discussed with the whole group. Larger, more flexible education spaces like the iLab provide rich opportunities for students to engage in the practice of literary analysis.

For AP Physics, teachers envision using the applied science lab to teach "physical computing" as a relevant AP project, building on the study of electric circuits. Physical computing means computer programming aimed at reading sensors and controlling physical objects (motors, lights, music). Students would be able to conduct a data analysis project in geophysics - download a data set from NASA or NOAA, visualize it in a spreadsheet to look for patterns or trends, and use it to "tell a story" about the science involved.

What is environmentally-friendly modern turf?

The latest generation of environmentally-friendly modern turf is a grass-like ground cover that replicates lush natural grass in appearance and function. When used on athletic fields, it provides a consistent year-round, all-weather playing surface built to withstand extended use without downtime for recovery. It allows multiple sport usage without the need to vary the playing surface.

How will environmentally-friendly modern turf change how the fields are used?

Environmentally-friendly modern turf playing fields exponentially increase playing and practice time because they can be used daily and in all types of weather, without worry of damage. Playability is enhanced since the fields remain uniform and consistent, season after season. They can also be used within hours of installation. In addition, while grass field managers recommend against using a natural field for more than 20-24 hours per week or 680-816 hours per year for a three-season window, a modern turf field can be utilized around 3,000 hours per year with no "rest" required.

Also, the addition of lights at Greeley's Competition Field and a walking path and lights at the Bell field means the fields will be available for use by the community during more hours on any given day. And if the Bell field is being used more, there could be an increase in pedestrian traffic in the downtown business district.

Note: Student athletes already are playing on turf. Since approximately 95% of Greeley's away games in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess and Rockland counties are played on turf, our athletes are at a disadvantage competitively when facing teams that practice and train on turf. To combat this, we rent turf fields at Purchase College in order for our athletes to get better acclimated to a turf field, but that cost begins to add up and those trips add about 1.5 hours in travel time to the student-athlete's day.

What are the different types of infill materials?

First and foremost, we will select an environmentally-friendly infill. We will not be using crumb rubber. The environmentally-friendly infill materials that are available include:

• Organic Infill: There are several organic infills available in the North American market, all utilizing different organic components, such as natural cork and/or ground fibers from the outside shell of the coconut. At the end of its life cycle it can be recycled directly into the environment.
• Sand (Silica) Infill: Pure silica sand is one of the original infilling materials utilized in modern turf. This product is a natural infill that is non-toxic, chemically stable and fracture resistant. Silica sand infills is a natural product. There is no possibility of heavy metals, and the dust/turbidity rating is less than 100. It can be used in conjunction with other organic infills on the market to provide a safe and more realistic playing surface.
• Coated Silica Sand Infill: This class of infill consists of coated, high-purity silica sand with either a soft or rigid coating specifically engineered for modern turf. These coatings are either elastomeric or acrylic in nature (non-toxic) and form a bond with the sand grain sealing it from bacteria to provide superior performance and durability over the life of a field.

Are environmentally-friendly modern fields safe?

There are numerous independent studies from groups and governmental agencies that have validated the safety of environmentally-friendly modern turf (e.g., U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Department of Health and the California Environmental Protection Agency).

Will the environmentally-friendly modern turf fields be designated as "school use only," or can other teams and organizations use these fields?

As always, other community teams and organizations will be able to use these fields when not being used by the District, and scheduling will improve because the fields will be available for longer periods of the day.

How will the District fund replacing an environmentally-friendly modern turf field when the time comes?

Environmentally-friendly modern turf requires far less maintenance and upkeep than our present grass fields. The monies saved from not renting a turf field at Purchase College, and needing to mow and line the fields on a regular basis during the life of the modern turf fields will be put toward future field replacements.

Time Line

What is the time line for completing the projects associated with this bond?

Item	Completion Date
Competition Field at Greeley	August 2017
DG/RB/WO/HG Global Learning Centers	September/October 2017
BS/SB STEAM Learning Centers	September/October 2017
Chappaqua Public Library	September/October 2017
Side Field at Bell	September/October 2017
Fields at Seven Bridges	September/October 2017
HG STEAM Learning Center	September/October 2018
HG Instructional Centers - Floor 1 (L Building)	September/October 2018
HG Instructional Centers - Floor 2 (L Building)	September/October 2019