The Amagansett School Board on Tuesday voted to add two separate propositions to the May 18 budget ballot. One asks permission to spend $150,000 from an existing capital reserve account to renovate the school's outdoor basketball courts, and the other regards creating a new capital reserve account for the purpose of saving up for technology and energy upgrades.
These will appear alongside a budget of approximately $11.9 million for the 2021-22 school year, though the school board has not yet formally adopted it.
School officials said Tuesday that neither of the two additional ballot propositions would increase taxes. The district already has money available for the basketball court renovation, and simply needs voter permission to access it. Without a complete overhaul the district "runs the possibility of the courts being shut down for safety reasons," Tom Mager, the district treasurer, said.
For the creation of the energy and technology reserve fund, Amagansett needs voter approval to actually place money into the account from whatever is unspent in a given school year -- no more than $500,000 in 2021 and no more than $300,000 in subsequent years for a duration of 10 years, up to a maximum balance of $2 million. Specific purposes will be laid out in the proposition, such as solar energy, geothermal technology, electric buses, upgraded computer equipment, and fire and alarm systems.
"It's definitely going to excel the district in a lot of areas," said Seth Turner, the district superintendent.
The full text of both propositions is online via the Board Docs database at aufsd.org.
Also Tuesday, Maria Dorr, the school's principal, announced that there will in fact be a summer school program this July. Instead of five days a week from 9 a.m. to noon, it will run Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to noon. She expects it will help some kids catch up after they struggled academically during the pandemic.
"It's just one more intervention that we can provide as a district to our students, and I feel that's very important this year," Ms. Dorr said.