School Will Be Modernized After 86 Years

With a “yes” vote on the Bridgehampton School District’s $24.7 million bond proposition on Tuesday, its 86-year-old school building is set for major expansion and renovation over the next few years, which school officials say will give students in kindergarten through 12th grade what they need in today’s world.

“I’m absolutely excited. It’s a huge step in a positive direction for our district to continue to remain viable,” Ron White, the school board president, said after the results — 167 to 135 — or about 55.3 percent voter approval were announced in a gymnasium that for years has been widely regarded as inadequate.

“We can spread out a little bit more, become a little more comfortable in our standard of living and teaching,” Mr. White said. “It’s onward and upward. Thank you so much to our community. I love this community.”

Preliminary plans by the district’s architect, John A. Grillo of Port Jefferson, show a 35,440-square-foot addition and renovations to modernize the only local school building on the South Fork never to have undergone major capital improvement. A new gym, locker rooms, fitness room, cafeteria, and science, technology, and music rooms are likely to become realities, as are classrooms to accommodate prekindergarten students, who are now housed in one of three outdoor modular buildings that are at least 40 years old and have surpassed their life expectancies.

 Lois Favre, the school superintendent, said Tuesday night that she expected the final plans to “be fairly close to the draft, but I think we’ll be open to input from all stakeholders as we move forward.” She, too, thanked residents for their support, saying, “This is something the students need and deserve, and I’m glad the community recognized that.”

The results Tuesday included 29 absentee ballots, of which 12 were “yes” votes and 17 “no.” The school district had faced criticism in recent weeks from residents who said December was an inappropriate time for a vote because many eligible voters were part-time residents who would be away. The district also faced criticism from some who thought the new space was excessive and that the district should explore sending some of its students to other schools.

But in recent days, Dr. Favre said, she started to feel the school district’s message had begun to sink in. After the results were in, she said, “I stayed tense all day today, but I did feel the positivity of the community, and I appreciate that. We had a lot of people who don’t normally chat with me call to say they were supportive.”

The successful bond proposition comes seven months after Bridgehampton residents supported the district’s budget, a $13.78 million spending plan that was over the state cap on tax increases and therefore required a super-majority of votes to pass. Turnout Tuesday surpassed turnout in May, when 239 ballots were cast. Dr. Favre said the higher turnout was “very exciting to us to know we’re being supported by the community in that way.”

Officials were to discuss their next steps last night at the school board’s monthly meeting. “There’s a whole big, long checklist of things we’ll need to do,” Dr. Favre said. Among them is obtaining approval from the New York State Education Department. According to that department’s website, the approval process takes 18 to 20 weeks but fluctuates widely depending on the number of capital projects to be reviewed.

Had the bond failed on Tuesday, Dr. Favre said, the district would probably have brought  a similar proposition to the voters. “We need it, so we would have had to keep on plugging.”