Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we need a plan to renew our schools?

The high school is severely overcrowded, and more students are on the way. Space in the high school is already inadequate to accommodate many classes that students need now. Several elementary schools are so crowded that the district has found it necessary to use portable classrooms. The district’s population is expanding, and conditions such as these will only become more widespread in the coming years. Simply put, District 428 currently lacks the necessary capacity to serve its students, and it is up to us, the citizens of Cortland, Malta, and DeKalb, to remedy this situation. The longer we wait the higher social and economic price we will all pay. And why wait We can begin today to build a foundation for our students that we’ll be proud of for many years to come.

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What is the plan?

The plan presented below is a comprehensive effort to expand the capacity of our schools in ways that are educationally sound and fiscally responsible:

1) Build a new high school for 2500 students on a 75 acre parcel located north of Dresser Road, between 1st Street and Annie Glidden. Scheduled to open in fall, 2011.

2) Build a new elementary school in Cortland on land to be donated by a developer. Scheduled to open in fall, 2010.

3) Repurpose the existing high school as a middle school (Huntley) with moderate renovations in the first phase.

4) Repurpose the existing Huntley Middle School as an elementary school (Chesebro) with slight to moderate renovations in the first phase.

5) Repurpose the existing Chesebro Elementary School as a district Early Childhood/Pre-K Center with slight to moderate renovations in the first phase.

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Why this plan and not one of the others that have been suggested?

The proposed plan tries to balance educational needs, costs, and overall community impact. Both the School Board and the Committees carefully considered several other plans, which included renovating the old high school, dividing students between two high schools, and even distributing the students among four smaller high schools.

Building a new high school and repurposing the current high school as a middle school greatly expands capacity throughout the district schools. At the same time, this option is dramatically less expensive than simply renovating the current high school, which would still necessitate the building of a new middle school in a very few years. The cost of the four high school plan would be more expensive still and would have actually exceeded the legal bonding capacity of the school district. The idea of four distinct high schools also raised fears that the District would become divided along lines that would work against community spirit and our tradition of diversity, which we are rightly proud of.

In the end, there was strong interest in both the single high school and the two high school options. The final recommendation to build a single, new high school was based on two primary considerations. 1) The school board, teachers, staff, students, parents, and other citizens within the District have worked hard to build a sense of community and pride that has its roots in the unity provided by a single high school. As no other option can, the single high school plan projects a vision of educational excellence and community support for all the students of District 428. 2) A second high school, which would involve the duplication of infrastructure and staff, would place a greater economic burden on the District.

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Why “ReNew our Schools”?  Why not simply name the organization, VOTE YES FOR DISTRICT 428?

Certainly our purpose is to encourage a YES vote on the referendum. But we wanted to stress that a YES vote not only helps our children by improving local education but is also part of a general effort to ReNew our schools and community. Renewal comes about by repurposing the older buildings, while NEW involves the building of a modern high school and elementary schools. In addition, improving schools is part of a broader effort toward community renewal. A community with quality schools is one that has pride in itself, that can attract new businesses, and that can sustain and improve property values.

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Assessments have gone up. Won’t that mean a double whammy of a tax increase if the referendum passes?

For some the answer is no, for others yes. However, the increase in taxes will not necessarily be proportionate to the increase in assessments. There are a number of factors that impact the actual tax you pay. This is complicated, but stick with us:

  • Assessments are based on the prior year’s sales, and assessments increased this year for almost everyone because sales prices during the last few years were high.

  • What counts in determining your taxes is what part your assessment is of the overall assessed valuation of all property in the school district. Your taxes are also affected by property exemptions and township tax rates which can vary from one town to another.

  • What’s this mean? Since the school district is limited in how much it can receive from taxes in any one year by the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower, the overall taxes paid by all of us cannot go up by more than that amount. What individual assessments determine is what amount is multiplied against the limiting rate of the total assessed value, in order to determine the total tax each individual homeowner pays. If there are new businesses, the overall base increases and the amount paid by homeowners could actually decrease. If everyone's assessment goes up about the same percent, the taxes paid stay the same for everyone. If your assessment has gone up less than average, your school taxes will go up less than others. If your assessment has gone up more than average, your school taxes will go up more than others, but they will not go up by anywhere near the percentage that the assessment went up. Estimates are that average taxes will go up by about 2.5%, even with the changes in assessments.

  • But won’t the school district get new money from the increased assessments? Mostly, no. Assessments on new construction do increase the school district’s revenue (but also mean that there are more children to educate). Otherwise, by law, the school district can NOT raise the amount of money it collects on existing property by more than the rate of inflation (CPI) or 5%, whichever is less. Increases for homeowners will differ depending on their individual reassessments, but the overall average will go up at most by a few percent (less than 5% and probably closer to 2.5%).

  • When will we know for sure what our new tax amount will be? Unfortunately, final figures are not out until late spring (usually April), as the final tax rate cannot be determined until all appeals are completed and final assessments are in.

  • The bottom line? The average increase in dollars paid for school taxes will go up at most by a few percent (less than 5% and probably closer to 2.5%) and not by the percent increase in assessments.

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Why are costs up so much from the last referendum?

Two reasons: 1) Construction costs have dramatically escalated. 2) Prior referendums have focused primarily on the high school. However, rising student populations have now triggered the need to increase capacity at all the schools in the district. The current proposal is different in that it provides a new high school, a new grammar school, and repurposed buildings for both elementary and middle schools. Carrying out repurposing and new construction at the same time alleviates current overcrowding, provides space for the students who are already in the system, and does so at considerably less cost (we estimate $40 to $50 million dollars less) than renovating each building individually.

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Why are we building a new high school rather than repairing and expanding the old one?

Building a new high school will cost about ten million dollars more than it would cost to renovate and expand the old high school to meet those students’ needs. However, while the up front costs for a new high school building are higher, as part of an overall plan to meet the entire District’s needs this approach saves a great deal of money over a relatively short period of time (an estimated forty to fifty million dollars over the ten years covered by the plan). This savings will be accomplished by the repurposing of the old high school as a middle school.

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What is meant by repurposing?

Repurposing simply means using an existing building, often after it has been renovated, for a new purpose. In the proposed plan the current high school will be repurposed as a middle school. Because enrollment at this middle school will be half that of a high school, it will be relatively inexpensive to renovate the high school for this smaller student body. This is especially the case because the core facilities—the bathrooms, cafeteria, and auditorium--which are too small for a high school, are large enough (with some updating and repair) for a middle school. In a positive domino effect, one of the middle schools will repurposed as an elementary school, adding further to the overall capacity of the District. To reiterate, by spending somewhat more money up front to build a new high school, and by repurposing two buildings, one as a middle school and the other as an elementary school, the constituents of the District will save approximately forty million dollars.  

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Why are we locating the new high school on land to be purchased on Dresser when there was space next to the old high school and free land available south of Twombley?

The short answer is that in locating the new school on Dresser the school board was responding to concerns expressed by parents, teachers, and members of the community in opposition to the two other sites.

Initially, most thought that a new high school could be built on property already owned by the District, adjacent to the present high school. However, when the cost savings of repurposing the current high school as a middle school became apparent, people recognized that problems would occur by having both a middle school and a high school on the same site. While donated land was an option, even the cost of purchasing land for the new high school would amount to only a tiny fraction of the forty million dollars that would be saved by repurposing.

The school board did seriously consider an offer by developers for donated land south of Twombley. However, a considerable number of people strongly protested against having the high school adjacent to the University.

It was at this point that a developer offered to sell the parcel on Dresser (contingent upon a successful referendum) at a sizable discount. Other advantages of this location include: its distance from major truck routes, other busy highways, and railways; that it is surrounded primarily by areas that are zoned residential; that it is next to a Fire and EMT station; that it is near an excel-lent city park; and that there is abundant space to suit the needs of current construction and any future growth.

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Overcrowding.  Sure the high school is crowded but once students go to college, won’t they face large classes and overcrowded corridors anyway?

Overcrowding of our schools is a problem on several levels. Comfort and safety are affected because students do not have room to pass one another in the halls. The portables that are being used to expand elementary require young children to put on their coats and walk to the main building to eat, participate in P.E., use the library, or participate in music and art.

Overcrowding has a more obvious effect on education in our schools by reason of the fact that we simply do not have enough classrooms to accommodate the necessary classes. There are currently not enough rooms with enough seats to handle the classes that need to be taught. Already support rooms for music, athletics, and administrative functions have been converted into classrooms. This has made the teaching of music and the training of athletes much more difficult.

The high school itself has not only run out of regular classroom space, but has even run out space that can be converted to classrooms. Students are already losing out on academic and cultural opportunities available to students in other districts simply because we lack the physical space in which to offer these opportunities. The global marketplace demands that our students keep pace in order to compete, and we have to see that they have the tools, including first rate facilities, to reach their goals.

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What happens if the referendum fails? 

The school district has already had to take steps to confront the lack of capacity in our schools, especially at the high school. Regular classes, enrichment activities, and sports have already been impacted. More cutbacks will occur if we do not act, further degrading the educational experience of our students. No matter the outcome of the referendum, the high school will soon have to begin classes far earlier in the morning than at present. If the referendum fails, more extreme measures will be considered, including the possibility of having to have two shifts at the high schools. Districts that have turned to multiple shifts at high schools have been extremely disappointed in the results.

At the elementary school level, full day kindergarten will be discontinued and more portables will be added to the elementary schools.

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Why should people who do not have children or who no longer have children in school care about the referendum? 

For several reasons. Many of us on the Renew Our School Committee do not have children in the school system but are involved because we believe, as do many others, that education is a community responsibility that should be shared by all of us. After all, we all benefit by educating the coming generations that will provide the skills, services, art, and entertainment that not only make our world livable, but enrich it in ways we cannot even predict.

But there are more immediate benefits. Communities with high quality schools are better able to attract businesses that provide desirable jobs. These businesses also increase the tax base, which in turn reduces property taxes for home owners. The quality of local schools is also an important consideration for anyone looking for a new location in which to settle. An investment in quality schools can improve property values relative to the taxes required to build those schools, benefiting all homeowners.

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Why aren’t the impact fees helping to pay for the referendum?

For many years impact fees were very low or not collected. The current impact fees have been in place for only two years and by law can only apply to developments that were annexed after the fees were put in place. While our communities have been growing, most growth has been from projects annexed prior to the introduction of the higher impact fees. The present lack of capacity at the schools has come about from serving children who live in homes that were built prior to the introduction of the impact fees. That is the source of the deficit that has necessitated the referendum.

Impact fees from future annexations will pay for school expansion down the road, but these fees cannot cover the current need for expansion. However, taxes and fees from future developments will help pay off the referendum bond, reducing the cost to present home owners.

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Why are they going to build such fancy and costly buildings. Can’t a new high school building be built for less money?

While a real effort has been made to propose a school that we can all be proud of, the primary goal has been to design a school that will stand the test of time from a number of perspectives, including the economic and the aesthetic.

The school is being built to accommodate 2500 students right away, with an ultimate core capacity (which refers to the handling capacity of bathroom, kitchen, and other such facilities that are expensive to add in later years) of 3000. This additional capacity will pay huge dividends in saved building costs down the road.

The school is designed to be architecturally harmonious with current local architecture and yet maintain its aesthetic appeal for decades to come. At the same time, functionality and cost effectiveness were given the highest priority.

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Okay, I want to support the proposal. What do I do? 

Of course, on February 5th, vote for the proposal. But before then, you can contact this committee and tell us how you’d like to help. We have more than enough work for volunteers. Write a letter to the paper supporting the proposal. Call up your friends and neighbors and encourage them to vote for the proposal. If they have questions that you can’t answer, refer them to the School District’s web site or this web site.

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Previous school board decisions have not helped gain the trust of the citizenry.  How can we be sure it’s any different now?  

Those of us in Renew Our Schools really appreciate the work that previous school boards did, but we too have heard the same concerns. The membership of the senior staff and the elected school board has changed during the intervening years since the last referendum. The current school board and the citizen committees working with the board have tried to learn from the concerns of the past. We’ve tried to make sure that the plan is comprehensive and that the planning process involves as many people as possible. By paying attention to past and also by bringing new perspectives to the table, the new school board and administration have played a vital and positive roll in forming the current plan.    

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So how are things different?

The new school board is made up of people who ran for office with full knowledge that they would have to enlist the entire community in support of any plan to renew our schools. Toward this end, several important steps were taken. The board insisted that any proposals provide comprehensive, long-term solutions to the District’s needs. Senior staff with expertise in handling the financial challenges of a rapidly growing school district were hired. Most important of all, the board resolved that the process of working out a new plan would be an open one responsive to citizen input. Each step of the process was widely publicized as citizen committees met with technical consultants, school officials, and other citizens during the several years of planning. Plans were changed and adapted in response to new information and citizen input, and while not everyone agreed with every decision, all points were listened to and argued in the public forums.  Carefully considered reasons were arrived at for choosing one path over another, and the process for arriving at these decisions was entirely public and transparent.  All plans were presented at public forums, and citizen input will continue to be an important part of the process, even after the referendum is passed.

The goal has been to make this a community plan, not simply a school district plan. 

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How Do the Elementary School Children Benefit from the Referendum?

The plan calls for a new elementary school in Cortland to be built on land donated by a developer. This school is scheduled to open in fall, 2010. Additionally, Huntley Middle School will be repurposed as an elementary school (Chesebro), while the Chesebro School will be repurposed as an early childhood/pre-kindergarten center. All of these changes will provide additional capacity at most elementary schools in the district.

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How Does the Music Program or Athletics Benefit from the Referendum?

This first phase of the ten year plan is all about classroom capacity. We must have addtional classrooms for high school and elementary students as soon as possible. If we don’t find additional space, the district will have no choice but to make unpopular and unfavorable choices such as limiting or eliminating elective courses in order to make space for courses required for graduation. As you may already be aware, 98% of available instruction space is currently being used at the high school. Almost all music and art curriculum at the elementary level is now taught by teachers using a cart to go from classroom to classroom. Next year, one of the elementary schools may need to turn their library into a classroom. We need to ask our community to look at this larger picture of creating more learning space. Even if the proposal in February does not immediately directly affect one’s own child/children, we must support this referendum for the good of the district.

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Volunteer Today!

Help ReNew Our Schools by talking to your friends and family about the referendum. If you would like to participate in additional ways, we have a number of volunteer opportunities to choose from, visit our volunteer sign-up page by clicking here.