Carle Place voters split on 2 bond proposals for school improvements

Residents in the Carle Place school district have approved a $10 million bond proposal for improvements at the joint middle and high school building but rejected a $6 million proposal to expand the Cherry Lane Elementary School.

Proposition 1, which passed Thursday by a vote of 637 to 439, according to Superintendent Ted Cannone, will fund upgrades to the middle and high schools' aging HVAC systems.

Proposition 2, which district residents rejected in a vote of 406 to 666, would have funded a $6 million expansion of the Cherry Lane Elementary School building to increase the number of seats in the district’s prekindergarten program.

With only the $10 million HVAC proposition passing, the average family can expect an annual school tax increase of $12.82, according to previous bond proposal presentations led by Joanna DeMartino, the district’s assistant superintendent for business. If both propositions had passed, families would have seen an average increase of $77.77.

The HVAC upgrades will cost around $13 million, and the district will use $3 million from a reserve account to cover a portion of the expense, according to school officials. Work on the HVAC systems is expected to begin in July.

Officials had noted that the pre-K expansion proposition was contingent on the community’s approval of the first proposal.

This is the first year Carle Place has offered a pre-K program, and it is housed at the high school. Proposition 2 would have allowed for the construction of five classrooms at the elementary school to house the pre-K program and increased the number of seats from 18 to about 90.

"Thank you to everyone who voted in today’s bond referendum vote," Cannone said in a statement late Thursday evening after the results were tabulated. "We look forward to sharing updates on the progress of the projects included in the first proposition and once again thank our community for its ongoing participation in the district."