Investing in Tomorrow: Ossining School Bond a Commitment to a Bright and Vibrant Future

By Katherin M. Crossling

I am writing to you as an Ossining resident, neighbor and homeowner since 2008, and a mom of three children who all attend Ossining schools. I wanted to share my thoughts with you about the upcoming school bond vote.

On Sept. 24 Ossining voters will have a choice; they can invest in the tremendous potential of their school district and community to elevate their facilities or keep things status quo and limp along inefficiently with patches and Band-Aids.

Personally, I believe that Ossining schools have the staff dedication and infrastructure to keep doing many things generally in an adequate fashion, but I know that we could evolve into true excellence. It is our aging facilities that are holding us back. We have a truly unique opportunity, decades in the making, to improve our educational trajectory for generations to come. I hope Ossining will seize that opportunity.

Let’s talk taxes. There is skepticism around a proposed $210 million facilities proposal and bond with no tax levy increase. That’s understandable. The way the proposal works is that the bond will predominantly be funded by a combination of existing district reserves, reimbursement from the state, which has been estimated between 67 and 69 dollars back for every $100 dollars (a historically high reimbursement percentage), and conversion of an existing $7 million capital projects line into a debt service line.

A little background on the $7 million per year capital projects line. This is a revenue line that the community put in place many years ago and it must be used yearly for capital projects only; it cannot be used to balance the operating budget. Past projects from this line include classrooms at Brookside, the Ossining High School driveway renovation, security vestibules, bathroom renovations, the high school guidance center, third floor connector and soon the Stormytown Road driveway project. Converting a large portion of this line to debt service is in part what keeps the bond tax neutral.

Think about it like buying a home for yourself that needs large-scale renovation. You could buy the home and set aside a renovation budget each year to do your projects piecemeal every year for 30 years or you could take out a loan borrowing against the equity in your home and do it all within a shorter period of time so that you can enjoy the renovations in the present and perform them in a way that is cohesive and financially prudent.

Essentially, this bond asks the community to agree to finance this project and use a combination of the capital line to pay the financing fees and the reimbursement from the state to pay off the principal so that all the projects can be done now. If the community says no, money does not go back to the taxpayers. The money simply stays where it is in the existing capital line and the district keeps proposing annual projects over a long period of time.

A brief history lesson may help clarify why the bond is needed now. For nearly two decades, New York State has utilized the Foundation Aid formula to help fund schools. The formula was designed to distribute funding with the goal of redirecting some funds to higher need districts. Practically speaking, it did not always accomplish that goal and was clumsily and inequitably applied.

Around 2008, the formula was frozen and thus aid was frozen to Ossining. During that same time, Ossining experienced a nearly 20 percent increase in enrollment. Evaluating how to make facilities match modern learning needs was not a luxury that Ossining was able to focus on due to being one of the most underfunded school districts in the state.

Instead, Ossining was in survival mode. There were budget cuts and facilities were stretched to the max. The administration, community and school advocates got to work. They lobbied the state to change its funding system. Ultimately, through the efforts of many and with support from elected officials, this push was successful. It is only in 2023 that Ossining finally became fully funded. Is the funding perfect? No. There more work to be done, but the advocacy continues. For the first time in decades, Ossining has had some breathing room to look critically at its facilities. The unprecedented enrollment increases have also stabilized.

Since learning that it would become fully funded, the Ossining School District quickly refocused and began working with its Board of Education and the Facilities Advisory Committee made up of educators and community members to develop and refine a comprehensive facilities analysis and building proposal. The initial proposal was presented and then pared down to be tax neutral. The final five-year plan includes major changes at Claremont and Roosevelt elementary schools Anne M. Dorner Middle School, and Ossining High School. The proposed changes, outlined below, are designed to be spectacular, but also financially prudent, smart and forward-thinking.

Ossining High School. A few years ago, a unique opportunity presented itself to expand the high school’s footprint. That campus is landlocked by neighborhood streets. However, a large church directly adjacent to the high school was put up for sale for the first time in recent memory. The community voted to approve the school district purchasing that church, with the concept being that it could eventually, after remediation, be turned into a state-of-the-art Science Technology, Engineering, and performing Arts space. The bond proposal seeks to make this vision become a reality.

The proposal for the high school also includes a new student commons space designed to finally help alleviate overcrowding in the hallways and cafeteria during lunch and free periods. This will provide a necessary communal space for students that is designed to improve their sense of connection to the schools and give them a place to gather, study, converse and more. The proposal also includes renovations to the existing music wing, and an improved fitness center that is ADA compliant.

Anne M. Dorner Middle School. The proposed changes to the middle school will include a new state-of-the-art seventh- and eighth-grade building on the existing middle school 30-acre campus. This new building will be designed to mirror some of the planned STEAM spaces at the high school and will aim to better prepare Ossining’s seventh- and eighth-graders for the intensity of their high school experience.

The bond proposal includes bringing fifth-grade students from Roosevelt Elementary School over to the existing middle school and making the current building a space for grades 5-6 only. This will alleviate the significant overcrowding that exists in that building, but more importantly it will put our displaced fifth-grade students back with their peers and keep them and the sixth-graders separate from the seventh- and eighth-graders. This is a more developmentally appropriate educational plan.

One of the most important intangible benefits of this plan is that students will be part of the same general campus space from in grades 3-8. Their experience will be spread across three buildings adjacent to each other. For a school district that has enthusiastically embraced the Princeton Plan, this will help solve one of its downsides, which has been frequent transitions to different elementary and middle school campuses.

Roosevelt Elementary School. This campus will be converted back to central office space with the possibility for some alternative education spaces. Years ago, this is where the central office was located, and bringing it back to this location makes it better positioned to service the needs of those in the community without access to reliable transportation. The district will also see $500,000 in yearly savings from no longer paying rent for central office space.

Claremont Elementary School. The proposed changes at Claremont are designed to alleviate significant overcrowding in the classrooms as well as the food prep and cafeteria areas.

There are some projects not included in the bond proposal that are already ongoing. These include renovations to Park and Brookside schools and a driveway project at the middle school campus, which will help mitigate traffic impact caused by the proposed new middle school building. That driveway and parking lot project have already been approved by voters. Additionally, AC upgrades are already approved for the existing middle school campus.

I hope I have shared some context and information that will be helpful as district residents consider the upcoming vote.

Ossining deserves nice things, too. Other districts around us have taken advantage of the incentives the state has to offer, and it would be nice to see Ossining do the same. Our pride should extend beyond our athletics, science and arts programming. It should be front and center in our classrooms and learning spaces as well.

Voting is at Ossining High School this Tuesday, Sept. 24 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Get out and vote!

Although Katherin M. Crossling serves as the Ossining Board of Education vice president, this opinion piece and the information contained herein only claim to reflect the understanding and position of the author. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of the Ossining Union Free School District or the Board of Education.