BOCES District Superintendent Dr. Charles Khoury gave a presentation on a Capital Project to refresh and refurbish Ulster BOCES, at a cost of $39 million at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting for the Ellenville school district. That figure would be broken down into eight shares for each of the school districts covered by Ulster BOCES. Ellenville Central School District’s share would come to $2,972,000 or 7.6 percent. The lion’s share would be taken up by Kingston schools.

Dr Khoury noted that the last time Ulster BOCES had a capital project was in 1989. On that occasion a county-wide referendum was held to pass a budget of $15.23 million ($33.6 million in today’s dollars). He said that the buildings, such as the Career & Technical Education Center in Port Ewen, were getting old and were in need of refurbishment. He added, “All of our building technology is now 30 years old. We lost an HVAC motor this year and could only find two of that model in the country. We bought one, but this is a nerve-wracking situation. All our electronics are from 1989.”

Khoury explained that this time BOCES was seeking to get approval from all eight school districts that it covers and avoid having a county wide referendum. If all eight school boards vote to approve, then the capital project will move forward. If not, then BOCES will seek a county-wide referendum. The approvals will be sought this year between December 7 and 16.

The time line, if the project is approved, will begin with detailed plans being completed by January 2022. Those will be reviewed by NYSED in 2023 and construction could begin in July 2024 and be completed in 2027.

Khoury explained that 54 percent of the money would be spent on the CTE center and 27 percent on the Special Education site in Port Ewen.

He concluded, as he had begun, by noting, “Our buildings are your buildings, and our students are your students.”