Voters Pass $78.3M School Bond

Riverhead residents approved a $78.3 million capital improvements bond on Tuesday that will upgrade infrastructure at all the school's buildings, and rejected an additional $7 million bond to fund a gymnasium.

The first proposition passed with 52.6 percent of the vote; 2,330 residents voted in favor of the proposal, while 2,096 voted against. For the second proposal, 1,760 voted in favor of the bond while 2,750 voted against it.

Voters hit the polls from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at four schools throughout the district. While numbers were not immediately available, school district officials said that more than 4,400 voters represented the highest turnout for a school bond vote in recent memory.

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When the voting results were announced, the Riverhead High School gymnasium, where district officials and bond supporters had gathered, burst into applause.

"Heartfelt thanks to the voters for participating and having their voice heard, to the CPR committee, Friends of the Bond," said district superintendent Nancy Carney. "It's just a great day for Riverhead, it's a great day for our community and our kids."

School Board President Ann Cotten-Degrasse said she was elated the vote passed, and was even happier about the high voter turnout.

"If we accomplished one thing, we accomplished getting more community involvement," Cotten-Degrasse said. "Since '66, I can't remember having 4,000 votes on anything."

Cotten-Degrasse added that the bond approval will help the school district decide how to move forward with balancing the school budget in the face of a tax cap that limits increases to 2 percent. The school district could hold a public vote to request the increase exceed the two percent limit, though it would have to pass with a 60 percent super-majority.

"This to me was a bellweather for the next thing that's coming with the budget," she said. "Right now budget-to-budget, there's $4 million that needs to be cut. We've cut just about as far as we can go with staff, now we have to start looking into programs. It's decimating public education, with this tax cap."

Cotten-Degrasse said that while the school district wouldn't consider a request to go too far over the cap, the approval of the school bond gave them a better idea of how much they might request in order to save cutting school programs. 

"Between last year, [when] we passed the budget with 63 percent approval, and this [bond vote], I think these two things prove the community does care about education and they do care about their kids and they do want sports and they do want music and they do want art," she said. "If we feel we can go over the tax cap, we'll give it a try."