Why Pleasantville School District Has Scheduled a Capital Projects Bond
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Why Pleasantville School District Has Scheduled a Capital Projects Bond
By Erin Ballard
On Dec. 17, the community will have the opportunity to vote on Pleasantville Forward, a capital project for students, for safety and for the future of Pleasantville. As board president, I hope this letter will inform and inspire our incredible community on the importance of the capital project and its many benefits for our entire school community.
Pleasantville Forward has been carefully designed to meet the Pleasantville School District’s most urgent facilities needs across all three school buildings. It focuses on enhancing safety features, sustaining healthy learning environments, and maintaining and upgrading key facilities used daily by our students and the entire community.
Some might ask why now when considering their vote. Over the last year, the board has worked closely with the administration, students, staff and community members to identify the most significant facilities needs. Through that work, the board has deemed all items in the project’s scope to be immediate needs, and, as such, it is our fiduciary and student-centered responsibility to act now. In alignment with this thinking, Pleasantville Forward seeks to address necessary improvements in one proposition for the community to vote on, as opposed to breaking it up into multiple propositions.
For example, the Bedford Road School air conditioning equipment and Pleasantville High School hot water pumps have reached the end of their useful lives and have become too costly to repair. It is also time to replace the playground turf, equipment and rubber surfaces at Bedford Road School that our students use daily.
I know that Pleasantville takes great pride in our students’ many accomplishments, from the arts and academic achievements to athletic programs. We are working hard to provide all students with the facilities they need for a healthy learning environment and to continue to achieve across all areas. The fields between the middle and high school need to be re-turfed and the track resurfaced. A final decision regarding specific turfing materials to be used will be made during the design and approval process and will be informed by input from medical personnel, environmental engineers and other applicable experts. We are also working with our engineering partners to implement infrastructure to ensure appropriate drainage on the back field.
Adding turf to the field across from the tennis courts and the field behind the district office will allow for greater access for students currently practicing alongside several teams on one field. Over 50 percent of our students participate in fall and spring sports, and our current system of scheduling existing fields is highly weather-dependent, often resulting in the need to cancel games and practices or shift outdoor sports practices to limited indoor space.
Lighting upgrades for the high school are also included in the capital project. The proposed project includes upgrading the lighting in the auditorium to enhance the student and community experience and work more efficiently with the electrical system. The plan also proposes installing lights around the high school’s main turf field. The addition of lights, which is only feasible while the turf fields are under construction, addresses several factors that limit field access when daylight becomes insufficient. We want to ensure that our students, who work hard every day to be ready for competition, can do so.
Funding the project is also a factor in the timing of the vote. As a result of thoughtful long-term fiscal planning by the Board of Education and administration, the district is prepared to fund the $15 million project through the Capital Reserve fund and a bond, resulting in a minimal and short-term financial impact on our taxpayers. If passed, taxpayers will see an estimated average increase in their annual school taxes of approximately $167 per year for the first two years of the bond only (2027-28 and 2028-29) – an estimated total of $334 for the entire project.
If passed, the district will enter a planning/design and state Education Department (SED) approval phase for about a year before construction begins in the spring of 2026. The goal is to phase out the project so that our “home fields” will be reopened by fall 2026.
Visit www.PleasantvilleSchools.org to review the full scope of the project and a Q&A document that includes additional details and helpful information. We also welcome feedback and questions at the community forum on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
Please mark your calendars for the vote on Tuesday, Dec. 17 in the middle school multipurpose room. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Erin Ballard is president of the Pleasantville Board of Education. She can be reached at BallardE@pleasantvilleschools.org.
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