BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

MASSENA — When Massena School District voters head to the polls on May 16 to approve the 2023-24 budget that was recently approved by school board members, they will also be voting on a possible capital reserve fund as well.

The announcement came during a recent school board meeting where Superintendent Pat Brady said the fund would have a 10 year term totaling $9 million. The funds will be used for capital improvement projects.

“At the last Finance Committee meeting, we discussed the potential creation of a new capital reserve to prepare funding for the next building project. This planning is in line with the work of the facilities committee, which has started to look at the possible scope for the next project per our five-year plan,” Brady told board members

According to Brady, a capital reserve fund would allow the district to fund a capital project without asking the public for additional taxes to cover the cost of the project while also allowing the district to simultaneously avoid bonding for the next project.

If the district were forced to bond to pay for a project, interest would continue to accrue as curtailments are paid, inevitably driving up the cost of a project in the long term. By avoiding interest payments, it would become a net sum for the district, Brady said.

Brady credited two capital reserve funds for saving taxpayers money with the current $49.6 million capital project that is in its final stage. Officials say they expect the last steps to be completed later this fall, if all goes well.

“The board did create two capital reserve funds to support our capital projects, one in 2016 and 2019. Both of them have been used for this $49.6 million capital project,”

For the current capital project, $43.6 million came from state funding, with $6 million coming from the capital reserve funds established by the district, officials said.

As a result of those efforts, it appears the tax levy will remain flat for the second year in a row as long as voters approve the district’s 2023-24 budget on May 16.

Brady told board members the capital reserve fund proposal has been pitched at both the facilities committee and finance committee meetings recently, with both committees on board with the plan.

According to Brady, the next steps will entail working with the facilities committee to assess what project may come next for the district.