Plainview-Old Bethpage's $114M school bond proposal would raise taxes an average of $549 per year

The Plainview-Old Bethpage school district is seeking voter approval of nearly $114 million in borrowing, aimed largely at expanding schools and relieving overcrowding as student enrollment has risen.  

Proposed construction and renovation, if approved in a vote scheduled for Tuesday,  would add an additional $549 per year to the tax bill of an average homeowner, district officials said. Current total property taxes average about $14,000 per household, officials added. 

Polls will be open between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. at Jamaica Avenue School, 85 Jamaica Ave. in Plainview, and at administrative offices in the H.B. Mattlin Middle School, 100 Washington Ave. in Plainview.

The referendum is split into two separate ballot items. Proposition No. 1, totaling $99.5 million, covers upgrades at the high school, along with other renovations throughout the district.

Big-ticket items at the high school include a proposed 12,000-square-foot auxiliary gymnasium with yoga and weight rooms, a new performing arts center, expanded cafeteria space, 10 additional classrooms and six bathrooms.

In addition, four classrooms would be added at the district's Judy Jacobs-Parkway Elementary School. The package would also provide for districtwide roof replacements, air conditioning in gyms and cafeterias and synthetic turf on playing fields. 

Proposition No. 2, totaling $14.4 million, would upgrade the district's Jamaica Avenue building so it could be used for student instruction, as well as its current community-based daycare services. 

The second proposition can only be approved if the first proposition passes. Proposition No. 1 alone would cost the average homeowner $450 in taxes. 

Support, but also resistance

Since October, school officials have conducted 11 public bond-issue presentations in an effort to educate residents on what they believe is an urgent need for school expansion. At the same time, the proposal has generated some taxpayer resistance, including a row of "Vote No" signs posted along a stretch of Old Country Road. 

"We have a critical space issue that needs to be addressed immediately, so the sooner we get this vote done, and the plans can be approved by the state, we'll be able to begin these projects," said Mary O'Meara, the district's superintendent.

Last week, O'Meara and more than a dozen student leaders met with a Newsday reporter and photographer for a tour of the district's high school. Enrollments there have climbed from 1,500 in 2018 to more than 1,700 this year, largely due to a migration of families from Queens, district representatives said. Districtwide enrollments are also up, from about 4,850 students to 5,300, even as enrollments across most of the Island decline. 

One result at the high school, officials said, is that lunch periods now start at 8:51 a.m. and continue for most of the day, as students rotate through a cafeteria with 238 seats. Meanwhile, students stuck in crowded hallways struggle to move from class to class during three-minute passing periods.

"I've found it increasingly difficult to get from class to class in the short transitional time we are given," said Ally Yagaloff, 17, a senior and class officer. 

Another senior, Vidhit Singh, who is also 17 and a class president, agreed that pedestrian traffic is a major issue. 

"Maybe sometimes people get hurt, and maybe sometimes people get pushed, and our school's not a place where people should be pushed around," he said. 

If approved, the debt would be paid off over 17 years, with 51% of total costs reimbursed by the state, local officials said. Even so, the project's sticker price has created a buzz on Plainview-Old Bethpage social networks, where some residents have described the bond initiative as "deeply troubling" or "unsustainable". 

"A lot of this just reflects shock, I think," said Glenn Denton, a retired engineer who has lived in the district 30 years and objects to spending on non-academic items such as turf fields. "Even people who support schools may have misgivings about these kinds of things, especially in today's economic conditions, when a lot of people struggle to pay the rent." 

Another common complaint is that the vote has been scheduled in a season when many residents are vacationing in Florida or otherwise preoccupied with issues other than school financing. 

"Nobody was paying attention to local politics at that particular moment," said Joseph Scarpa, another longtime resident whose family has followed the bond debate via social media.

A 2023 review by the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, found that districts statewide held more than 400 of these "off-season" bond votes over the past dozen years. Seventy of those votes were in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Empire analysts reported that turnout was exceptionally low, routinely drawing less than 5% of eligible voters. With this in mind, some advocates have suggested that all bond referendums be held in May.

Farmingdale voters on Tuesday rejected a $55.85 million bond proposition, with 952 in favor and 1,326 opposed, while approving a $22.1 million proposal, 1,202 to 1,089. 

Another district, Floral Park-Bellerose, has scheduled a Jan. 28 vote on a $19.7 million plan.

O'Meara said during an interview that "off-season" voting raised "reasonable concerns" but argued that there was a pressing need for expansion in her own district that required swift action. She said the time required for districts to obtain state construction approvals can run between 12 and 18 months. 

"People ask why don't we wait for the usual May budget vote," O'Meara said. "But then we would most likely not get any construction started until the summer of 2027." 

By John Hildebrand

john.hildebrand@newsday.com@johnhnewsday

John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.