By Dan Murphy
The Yonkers City Council, at a special meeting held on August 3, unanimously approved an $80 Bonding project to build a new elementary school at the site of the former St. Dennis School in southwest Yonkers.
The borrowing plan for new schools is more complicated now in Yonkers because of the new Schools Construction Board that we created last year in an attempt to move forward the building of new schools, and the refurbishing of up to 100-year old schools throughtout the district.
The Yonkers Industrial Development Agency, IDA, will be creating, or floating the bonds to the public. One piece of good news for the Yonkers taxpayers is that New York State government will reimburse Yonkers for 74% of the costs of the new school and community center, resulting in a final cost of around $21 Million.
Construction of the school will take at least two years to complete with a 2023 opening at the earliest. Two councilmembers were said to be opposed to the bonding until a lengthy council budget committee meeting explained the new bonding process.
Councilman and Budget Chair Anthony Merante said, “We must move forward in building new schools, and in spite of all the stringent financial details, I support this in the hopes that there will be no hiccups in the construction of this school.”
Councilwoman and Education Chair Tasha Diaz said, Diaz, “I’m glad that we had are all on the same page. This ts vital to Yonkers and the school will be in my district on the south side where we need more schools. This state of the art, new school will help change the mindset of our children and a community center will be a part of this project is also great.”
Councilman John Rubbo said, “I’m excited to support this and to see some progress in building more schools. We set aside money to purchase the property after long negotiations with the Archdiocese and now we can move forward with construction. I hope to see us build more schools for our growing school population.”
Council President Mike Khader said, “I had serious questions but I will be supporting this because the ultimate goal is to get a state of the art school built in the next 2-3 years. I don’t want to delay this project and have our students suffer. But as we look to build more schools and refurbish our older schools, more clarity is needed. And while our reimbursement rate is 75% its insulting that other cities are getting a 95% rate. It’s a slap in our face that we can’t ignore.”
The vote on Tuesday is a continuation of a 5 year attempt to purchase the property from the Archdiocese of NY which started in 2017. After difficult negotiations, the property was purchased for just under $6 Million The school is located at the corner of McLean Avenue and Van Cotrlandt Avenue. Mayor Mike Spano has proposed a $2 Billion schools construction plan for the Yonkers Public Schools
