Community Divided on School Spending

The Scarsdale School District and School Board continue their efforts to find the right level of spending for the proposed 2026 school bond. How much is too little? How much is too much – and what are the community’s priorities?

Since October, the Village voted to approve a $70mm indoor/outdoor pool, which will add to resident’s overall tax burden. And the school district received considerable feedback from the Edgewood community, about the need to upgrade the existing elementary school building and to expand it, partially to accommodate the special education program that is sited there.

In order to assess community opinion, the administration invited participation in two surveys – one in October, 2025 and another in January, 2026. After the feedback from the October survey, they adjusted the proposal and added an addition to the Edgewood School. The current proposal includes $24.2mm for Edgewood Elementary School and $29.9mm for Fox Meadow Elementary School.

The current scope of the bond is $98.5mm, with $58.8mm of that for spatial work which includes a new 2-story addition at Edgewood with 6 classroom and 5 small instruction spaces, At Fox Meadow, there would be a new two-story addition for a library and multi-purpose room and classroom renovations.

A tax neutral bond would be $40mm, so the proposed amount of $98.5mm is about 2.5 times that and will translate to a $580/year increase for the average homeowner in Scarsdale.

So what does the community think?

The latest survey received 834 responses, 745 from residents. This was up from 828 total responses in October, with 641 from residents. However, with 5,900 households in Scarsdale, the respondents represent a small group of eligible voters so it's difficult to know how to interpret the results.

Since only residents can vote, here are a few notes about their views.

In this latest iteration, 75.9% of respondents have children in the schools, as compared to 91.3% in October, and the number of empty nesters has risen to 19.9% of respondents, from 4.2% in October.

One takeaway from the survey is resident response to the “spatial project” work. Results show that 44.8% say that “These projects reflect the right balance of need and affordability of our community” and an almost equal percentage, 44.2%, said, “While the opportunity is important, these projects are too expansive and out of balance with respect to need and affordability.” However, another 11% felt the projects were “insufficient” and opted for “This is an opportunity to be more expansive in our thinking about improving learning environments for the future.”

But, if you add the 44.8% who support the spending, to the 11% who believe more could be done, it indicates that 55% support the current proposal, which would need to pass by 50%.

The community was far more enthusiastic about the list of infrastructure projects, with 61.5% of residents saying they support the work.

About the question of air conditioning large spaces in the schools, views were mixed.

See the chart below.

And concerning funds for field work, the results among residents were mixed.

Most significant is the response to the question about the overall scope and cost of the bond.

-43% said it was just right
-46% said it was too high
-10% thought the amount was too low.

The next meeting of the Board of Education is Monday night January 12, 2026 and the survey results will be reviewed and discussed. The Board will need to decide whether there is sufficient support for the current proposal, or if they should make adjustments to meet the concerns expressed in the survey.

See the survey results here: