School Board Signals Agreement on a School Bond Under $100mm

With the goal of a bond vote in May 2026, the Scarsdale Schools administration and Board of Education reviewed the latest cost estimates and further refined the plan at their meeting on Monday December 15, 2025.

In November, the Board asked the administration for a proposal under $100mm which they reviewed at the December meeting.

On 12/15, the administration recommended at $97.2 mm plan. They showed feedback from a survey of 828 respondants. 77% were residents with the balance from employees and students who cannot vote. 52% suppported this level of spending, 21% said it was too low and 27% said it was too high.  

The bond work proposal is divided into four categories. The largest, or about 61% of the work is Spatial and includes large additions and renovations to Edgewood and Fox Meadow Elementary Schools.

The initial plan did not include the Edgewood addition, but after pushback from the community, the Board opted to add a two-story addition including 6 classrooms and 5 small instruction spaces, some of which will be utilized by the 8:1:2 and 12:1:2 special education classes that are held at Edgewood. Also included at Edgewood are interior work to the gym and multi-purpose room and interior classroom renovations.

At Fox Meadow, a new two-story addition will be built with a library and multi-purpose room, classrooms will be renovated and an ADA ramp will be built for access to the playground from the Kindergarten wing.

Also included in the spatial budget is the renovation of the Heathcote Library, renovations at the high school of the 3D art room, Learning Center, Little Theater, library rooms and 2 single use bathrooms.

At the Middle School, the Library and Dining Rooms will be renovated.

The second category, called Building Conditions and Infrastructure, comprises $26.1mm in projects at all 7 district schools. At the meeting on 12/15, the Board agreed to add a $913,271 project to improve drainage on the front field of Quaker Ridge School. The field often floods and spills onto Weaver Street. They also decided to defer the replacement of oil tanks at all 7 buildings.

Another 11% of the bond, or about $10.7mm will be used to install Air Conditioning. This was initially budgeted at $15mm and included air conditioning all classrooms and large spaces such as auditoriums and gyms. However, in order to meet the numbers, about $5 mm in air conditioning costs were cut, including air conditioning in the middle school gyms and auditorium and the SHS cafeteria. At the meeting on Monday, the Board opted to add air conditioning at the Heathcote and Quaker Ridge auditoriums back in to the plan.

Under Field Work, there was $4.7mm allocated to build a girls softball field at Greenacres Elementary School and to do field work at Scarsdale Middle School. In order to reserve funds, the turf field at SMS has been deferred and the school hopes to work with the Village on a project to renovate the field and build a stormwater retention basin at SMS. The field work budget is now $1.5mm.

The presentation includes an estimate of the individual homeowner tax increase to fund the $97mm bond. According to the chart, for a homeowner whose house is assessed at $1,320mm, the $97mm bond would mean a tax increase of $570 a year. Those with homes at higher assessed values, can estimate their tax increase based on this figure – and the administration plans to provide a sliding tax calculator so that residents can get an accurate read on their tax increase.

The timeline now calls for the board to confirm the scope of the bond at their meeting on 1/12/26, to conduct a second survey, to adopt the referendum on 3/16/26 and to hold a district wide vote on the bond on May 19, 2026.

See the presentation here.