The Farmingdale School District is committed to maintaining a safe environment for students, staff and all who visit district facilities. To accomplish this objective, the district continually updates its capital projects plan and looks to implement necessary capital projects with as little impact as possible on taxpayers. Over the past several years, the district has been able to move forward with replacing original boiler/burner equipment throughout the district through its annual operating budgets, negating the need for a separate bond referendum. In developing the proposed budget for the 2007-2008 school year, the Board of Education has budgeted funds necessary to complete several on-going projects in this area. In addition, the board of education is proposing leveraging EXCEL Aid and building aid from the state to fund replacement of remaining original boiler equipment in the district and for window replacement on the south side of the high school.

Board President Shari Bardash-Eivers noted, "It is vital that we keep our facilities in good physical condition and that we provide a physical setting that supports excellent educational practices. We also realize we need to do everything possible to mitigate the tax impact of capital improvements on our residents. Using EXCEL Aid and then leveraging these state funds with building aid from the state has allowed us to propose over $3.8 million in capital improvements with minimal financial impact. We are also proposing providing additional capital projects funding through our annual operating budget while keeping the budget-to-budget increase to 3.89 percent. We believe this situation is a win-win for our district and our taxpayers."

The EXCEL Aid program offers school districts a one-time-only opportunity to receive additional state funding for capital projects. The state has offered the Farmingdale School District $2,040,368 in EXCEL Aid. With regular building aid the district receives on capital projects, the district is proposing $3,886,415 in capital projects to be accomplished with state funds. The proposed capital projects plan will be on the May 15 ballot (the day of the school budget and trustee elections) as Proposition #2. If approved by voters, there will be negligible cost to taxpayers.

Recently completed capital projects include brick repointing and pool dehumidification at the high school, brick repointing and boiler/burner replacement at Howitt East, brick repointing at Howitt West and boiler/burner replacement at Woodward Parkway. Boiler/burner replacement is currently under way at Albany Avenue. Approval of Proposition #2 on May 15 will provide funding for boiler/burner replacements at the high school, Howitt Middle School West and Northside and Saltzman East Memorial elementary schools and window replacement on the south side of the high school.