Cornwall voters asked to approve $44 million-plus school capital plan to boost safety, HVAC and traffic flow

The Cornwall Central School District is asking residents to vote on May 19 on three capital propositions, including a package the district says will invest more than $44 million in infrastructure improvements without raising local taxes.

District speakers presented the package as a mix of health-and-safety upgrades and building repairs. A middle school principal, speaking about conditions at her school, said unreliable public-address equipment and an intermittent fire alarm system have required staff to deliver messages by hand and created safety risks. "A new PA and fire system is super important ... Everybody should be able to hear if there's an emergency," she said.

The proposal would also reconfigure arrival and dismissal circulation at the middle school to separate parent drop-off from bus traffic. The principal described mornings with "hundreds of cars" and about 30 buses arriving in a roughly 10-minute window, producing frequent near-misses and forcing some parents to meet students off-site. She said separating the flows would let buses move more quickly on their routes and make the area safer for students and staff.

Facility repairs described in the message include stabilizing brick steps and failing cement at the school's front entrance, which the principal called a recurring safety concern for visitors and young children. "The bricks again are kind of giving way. Cement's giving way," she said, noting the risk of falls.

The district also highlighted climate-control problems in the auditorium. The principal said the space can heat to nearly 80°F on hot days and that a New York State heat threshold limits occupancy at high temperatures. She added that wooden orchestra instruments have been moved to the high school during warm periods because heat can damage them, and argued that upgraded HVAC would protect students and school property.

The district framed the first proposition as covering essential infrastructure across district buildings and emphasized that it would not raise taxes. The announcement did not specify funding sources or provide a detailed spending breakdown in the recorded remarks.

The Cornwall Board of Education is promoting the vote and directing residents to the district website and its social channels for more information. For details about the propositions and voting, the message said to visit cornwallschools.com or the Board of Education's Facebook and YouTube pages.

No formal vote or board action on the propositions was recorded in this message; the recording functioned as a public information announcement ahead of the May 19 ballot.