Binghamton residents voted Tuesday to approve a referendum allowing the city school district to move forward with a $56-million capital project to renovate Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School on the city’s North Side.
According to preliminary results, around 90 percent of Binghamton voters approved the capital project.
The school district plans to build a new two-story classroom wing with art spaces, common areas for each grade, and improvements to outdoor play spaces. The project will also address significant issues with asbestos that the school has been facing for years.
The capital project will not impact the tax levy. The school district plans to use $24 million from its capital reserve fund, and borrow the remaining $32 million, paying that money back using building aid funding from New York state.
Renovation and construction are expected to be finished by 2028.
In 2022, the school district considered closing the elementary school, in part because of the costly asbestos removal the building needs.
Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation put forward by state Sen. Lea Webb and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo that would have allowed the school to request more state aid to pay for the repairs. But a provision in the 2024 state budget allows the school district to apply for 10 years worth of state funding to make the repairs.
