Sharon Springs SD Voters To Decide On Projects, Contract

By Chris English

SHARON SPRINGS _ Voters in the Sharon Springs School District will give a thumbs up or down to a capital project and related energy performance contract after the school board at its Monday, March 10 meeting unanimously approved resolutions placing them on the May 20 ballot.

The questions would be answered that day along with the usual vote on the annual budget and electing school board members. The board Monday night approved State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) resolutions for both the project and the contract, and also a resolution placing them on the May 20 ballot.

Also approved at the March 10 meeting was a SEQRA resolution for a smaller capital project designed to take care of needed maintenance and fixes for the 2025-26 school year at an estimated $100,000, according to Superintendent Thomas Yorke. Money for that smaller project will be included in the 2025-26 budget voters will decide on May 20, he added.

Yorke added that the larger capital project is estimated to require an inital outlay from the district of about $2.73 million and the energy performance contract an initial outlay of about $1 million. However, he explained that the two are interrelated in that the general aim of the project will be to achieve greater efficiencies and savings in lighting, heating and other areas. The hope of district officials is to recoup the cost of the energy performance contract through efficiencies over an 18-year period, Yorke said.

The energy performance contract would be put out to bid and the project/contract might take two or three years to get rolling, he continued.

One of the goals of the larger capital project and energy performance contract is to "create stability within the tax cap," Yorke said. "As we take on debt we want to also pay off other debt to stabilize taxes."

School facilities need periodic work to keep operating safely and efficiently and Yorke added that work needs to be done on a fairly steady basis so that taxpayers are not hit with too much at once.

"We've had the lowest property tax levy in the region for a long time," he said. "We want to keep that tradition while also maintaining the building."

"The capital maintenance project (the larger project) will help stabilize debt services and keep the tax impact very minimal," Yorke continued in an email to this newspaper. "The source of funding (for both projects) is a function of the district's debt structuring. It is my understanding that there is a scheduled falloff coming up, and the proposed projects would level out the debt service."

In a brief budget discussion at the meeting, the superintendent said the projected deficit for the 2025-26 budget still stands at about $500,000 and that he, Business Manager Anthony DiPace, the school board and others will work hard over the next few weeks on ways to close the gap.

"We haven't gotten final numbers from the state yet (on state aid) but we're not optimistic it will increase much for next year," Yorke noted.

In other actions from the meeting, he added he had a recent conversation with Superintendent TheriJo Snyder of the neighboring Cherry Valley-Springfield School District. Yorke said Snyder told him it was the feeling of the CVS school board and community that they wanted to field their own teams for the upcoming fall sports season and not combined teams with Sharon Springs.

However, Yorke said CVS remains open to the idea of combined teams beyond the fall of 2025 if Sharon Springs needs that accommodation. The two districts have been fielding some combined athletic teams in various sports and at various levels since 2020, Yorke said. He added that Sharon Springs will be able to field its own teams for this coming fall.

Sharon Springs sophomore Kaylee Crewell, the student representative to the school board, reported that Spirit Week will be held March 24-28 and the theme this year is making a difference in the community. Activities that week will include food donations to various charities and other community-oriented initiatives, she said. Crewell added that students are organizing an April 23 blood drive to be held in the school auditorium.

In a personnel action at the end of the meeting, the board approved a leave of absence from March 1 through Sept. 1 for substitute cleaner Charles Parks.

The next school board meeting is scheduled for March 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the usual location, the school library. Yorke said it's fairly common to start holding two meetings a month as the school year nears its end in order to fulfill contractual obligations and take care of other business.