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CityREVIEW NewRochelle March 11 & 18, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 5 | www.cityreviewnr.com
BOE leans toward pricier bond options
A NEW DEAL?
By SARAH VARNEY Education Reporter
Westchester County and its planned Playland operator, Standard Amusements, have renegotiated a deal for the company to manage the historic amusement park. For story, see page 3. Photo/Andrew Dapolite
Rye councilwoman to challenge Latimer for state Senate By CHRISTIAN FALCONE Editor-in-Chief Julie Killian, a city of Rye councilwoman, will try to do what no other Republican has been able to: beat George Latimer. Killian announced that she plans to seek the New York state Senate seat for the 37th District currently occupied by Latimer, a Democrat, at a Rye City Republican Committee meeting
last month, the Review has learned. She is in her first full term on the Rye City Council and earlier this year was appointed deputy mayor. Killian, a mother of five, first joined the council in 2012 after being appointed to the seat following a vacancy. Tony Sayegh, a political analyst for Fox News and News12 Westchester, said the 37th District, which stretches from the city of Yonkers north to the
town of Bedford, is one of the Senate’s very few true swing districts in the state, meaning that either political party could wrestle control in a given election cycle. “It really requires somebody who is independent in some respects,” he said, adding that it’s also a very diverse district. Sayegh, also a Republican strategist, has already been retained by the Killian camp as she prepares to officially
launch her candidacy with an announcement expected on
Columbus Elementary School was the setting for the March 2 meeting of the City School District of New Rochelle Board of Education, at which several board members expressed support for either of the two proposed capital bond options for school building repairs and renovations that would cost $79 million or $104 million, respectively. Both of these proposed bonds expand the scope of repairs and replacements included in the $49.5 million bond voted down on Dec. 17, 2015. A current buildings condition report, which is still in progress, shows that all of the schools’ buildings rank in the “unsatisfactory” category. Most schools also have multiple health and safety issues that need to be remedied, according to school district officials. The $104 million proposed bond would put the school system on the right track for the next decade, according to Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne. A major correction of the district’s facilities’ woes would enable a long-range facilities plan that would take into consider-
ation enrollment projections, air quality standards and security and safety reviews. It would allow a school system to plan facilities’ usage to fit with a district’s vision for education. “For at least the past 10 years there has been no long-term facilities plan,” Osborne said. At a Feb. 23 Board of Education meeting, Jeffrey White, assistant superintendent for business and administration, presented four versions of a proposed bond to address critical needs throughout the district. Option No. 1 would cost $38 million and pay for critical roof replacements, some masonry repairs and some window and door replacements. Option No. 2 replicates the $49.5 million rejected bond. However, that bond would probably necessitate a second bond for facilities repairs just one year out, Osborne said. That $49.5 million bond proposal provides roof replacements, repair and reconstruction of failing masonry, replacement and repair of windows and the replacement of exterior doors at school buildings on the district’s 10 campuses. The money would also make the buildings compliant BOND continued on page 11
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