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  2. Capital Projects
  3. 2025 Capital Improvement Project
  4. FAQs about Fairport for the Future 2025

FAQs about Fairport for the Future 2025

About Fairport for the Future 2025

  • The Fairport for the Future 2025 Capital Improvement Project is a proposed referendum that will come before Fairport and Perinton voters at a public vote on September 30, 2025. This project was designed to celebrate and support our Kindergarten through 8th grade facilities: four beloved elementary schools and two remarkable middle schools where our students begin their educational journeys as part of the Fairport family.

    Students have walked the halls of Brooks Hill, Jefferson Avenue, Northside, Dudley, Martha Brown and Johanna Perrin for a combined 313 years of learning, laughter, lockers, cubbies, assemblies and celebrations.

    We think it’s time for an update.

     

     

  • Through careful, intentional use of District capital reserves, use of maximized aid from New York State and the drop off of debt, the proiposed Fairport for the Future 2025 project will come with no additional tax levy to our Fairport and Perinton residents.

  • The Fairport for the Future 2025 Capital Improvement Project was developed with insight and input from staff members in all of our elementary and middle schools. Over the course of 12 months, a team of Fairport staff members from each of our six K-8 schools met with District administrators to identify and develop facility priorities for each school. The District and our architects and construction teams met with administrators to sketch out the “floor plans” for each building - and then our staff filled in the blanks. With their feedback on the lived experiences of hundreds of students, parents and visitors who pass through our schools each year, the District has defined a breadth of projects to celebrate and support our elementary and middle schools.

    The K-8 Facilities Planning Team brainstormed project priorities from several sources:

    • Building Condition Surveys (BCS), which are required by the state and involve a comprehensive visual examination of each school by administrators and architects
    • First-hand staff accounts and experiences in their buildings
    • Review of building aid and maximum cost allowances for each building

     

  • To explain the project, we are providing information to staff, families, students and community members at back-to-school events, orientation sessions and meetings throughout Summer and Fall 2025. We are sharing information on the District’s website, social media accounts, Commentator newsletter and District publications and at Board of Education events.

  • The Fairport for the Future 2025 CIP focuses on:

    • Educational Programming: Creating modern learning spaces
    • Fiscal Sustainability: Managing infrastructure, protecting investments and creating a consistent facilities plan for District facilities
    • Facilities Planning: Providing safety and security enhancements and site improvements, such as air conditioning, fire-rated corridor walls and ADA improvements

two elementary school students smile at the camera

Project Themes and Scope

a group of kindergarten students sit on the floor to work on a technology coding program

  • We designed the proposed Fairport for the Future 2025 Capital Improvement Project with four themes in mind:

    • Responsible use of taxpayer investment in our District and in Capital Reserve funding
    • Transforming outdated spaces in our elementary and middle schools 
    • Maximizing the efficiency, operations, useful life and versatility of our facilities 
    • Celebrating and supporting our K-8 school communities

  • We followed the money. The Board of Education’s priority for the project was to avoid an additional tax burden on the community. New York State has a complicated formula for identifying how much funding it will reimburse for construction projects in and around schools. Factors at play involve the age of the infrastructure, what projects have been completed in the recent past, how many students are in the building and what kinds of projects are on the table.

    We calculated:

    • What the top priorities are in each school building
    • How much the District can be reimbursed for projects in each building
    • When existing debt from previous projects will be removed from the books
    • How much funding the District will need to use from the Capital Reserve fund to allow us to maintain the integrity of our “no additional tax burden” commitment

  • In each building, you’ll find dollars set aside to address critical health and safety Building Condition Survey (BCS) items, including:

    • Fire alarm system upgrades
    • Upgrades and replacement of original HVAC equipment
    • Electrical panel replacement
    • Building controls upgrades
    • Public address and clock system upgrades
    • Ventilation and air management updates

    You’ll also see provisions for updates to some designated toilet rooms in each building, along with special attention to installing or upgrading air conditioning in large group instruction spaces or assembly spaces. Retrofitting these spaces to provide air conditioning is another community priority; it would help improve student and staff comfort and safety and would also help the District comply with NYS mandates for cooler gathering spaces during warm days.

    Here’s where the wide-ranging and unique needs of each of our K-8 buildings comes into play. In addition to the universal BCS items and the HVAC installation and upgrades, each building would have a unique focus, tackling a specific issue or area in need of modernization as decided by the K-8 Facilities Planning Team.

  • Each school building is unique, not just in history and culture, but in infrastructure, design and age. Because of these factors and others, each school building is allocated a different amount of building aid by NYS. In order to meet the standard of a zero-percent tax levy project, the District is working within the limits of that building aid. 

    In addition, the inherent differences in infrastructure, age and use of each building means that in order to tackle various remodeling/reconstruction projects, the need for additional demolition or site work to access areas of concern would cost more than the maximum cost allowances and/or would require demolition of new spaces.

    The District is proud to support over 2,200 students in our elementary and middle schools. As any Fairport family or graduate will tell you, each of our K-8 buildings has a character all its own, with a unique past and a unique present. It follows, then, that any project touching all six of these buildings would need to address a wide range of needs, spaces and upgrades.

Project Funding Information

  • Through careful, intentional use of District capital reserves, use of maximized aid from New York State and the drop off of debt, the Fairport for the Future 2025 project would come with no additional tax levy to our Fairport and Perinton residents.

    The proposed Fairport for the Future 2025 Capital Improvement Project is estimated to cost $73.5 million. If the referendum is approved, the District will fund the project with $15 million from its Capital Building Reserve Fund and $58.5 million of issued principal in long-term debt. Long-term debt principal and interest payments are projected to begin in the 2028-2029 fiscal year. We anticipate that Building Aid from New York State will cover that expense. After factoring in capital reserve monies, projected state building aid (75.4%) and local share of current debt retiring, the estimated tax impact of the project to Fairport residents is $0.

  • Capital reserves are funds that are set aside through a voter-approved proposition that can only be used for construction projects that are approved by a voter referendum. Capital reserves are used to offset the costs of a capital project to minimize taxpayer burden and supplement funding and aid from New York.

  • New York State has continued to demonstrate a commitment to supporting educational infrastructure through school building aid. Building aid, enacted through law as a reimbursable aid, is available for voter approved-projects involving new school building construction, additions and alterations/modernization of existing buildings. The State has enacted laws throughout the years to create financial incentives for schools to ensure that their facilities are adequate to educate students. Any unforeseen changes to the way New York State reimburses aid to schools would affect districts statewide and would have to be managed at the state level.

  • No. The following are considered exclusions under the property tax cap: construction, acquisition, reconstruction, rehabilitation or improvement of school district capital facilities or capital equipment, including debt service and lease expenditures, and transportation capital debt service.

  • No. The STAR program is a separate program administered by NYS. View more information related to the STAR program.

a graphic representation of the cost of a project, from total project referendum to additional tax levy

Voting Information

two students, a high schooler and an elementary schooler, smile at the camera

  • Fairport for the Future 2025 is up for public vote on September 30, 2025. New York State education law requires that school districts present a separate proposition for capital improvement projects. In addition, capital projects draw on a different funding stream at the state level (state building aid) than the annual school budget. We also are proposing the use of existing capital building reserve dollars as will be indicated in the proposition.


    Districts may - and sometimes do - have capital project propositions on the same ballot (separate proposition) as the annual school budget in May. However, capital project planning and development play a large role in determining a voter referendum date. Fall vote dates factor in the time needed for design work, state education submission and review, bidding and construction. Voting in September gives construction crews much-needed time to complete work across multiple summers while school is not in session. This reduces disruption to our programming during the school year.

  • Eligibility
    To be eligible to vote on the Capital Improvement Project on September 30, a person must meet the following requirements:

    • Be at least 18 years of age
    • Be a United States citizen
    • Be a resident of the Fairport Central School District for at least 30 days preceding the vote

    Voters do not have to own property in the school district. Voter registration is not required. Voters do not have to be a parent or have children in the school district.

    Voters must provide one proof of residency such as a driver’s license, a non-driver ID card, voter registration card, or utility bill. Each voter is also required to sign his or her name and address.

    Absentee and Early Mail Ballots

    Residents unable to vote on the Capital Improvement Project on September 30 because of disability, illness or travel OR residents who wish to vote by mail may request applications for absentee or early mail ballots by contacting the District Clerk at (585) 421-2010 or via email at sarah.driscoll@fairport.org. 

    All absentee and early voter ballot applications must be received by the District Clerk at least seven business days prior to the vote if the ballot is to be mailed to the voter OR the day before the vote if the ballot is to be picked up personally by the voter. Sealed ballots must be returned to the District Clerk by 5 p.m. on September 30, the day of the vote.

Facilities Information

  • Fairport for the Future 2025 came from a combination of research initiatives conducted over the past several years, including the state-mandated Five-Year Building Condition Survey (BCS). Building deficiencies were identified during a Building Condition Survey in 2020. If not addressed, these deficiencies heighten the risk of building damage and deterioration. We took these findings and used them to guide the development of Fairport for the Future 2025.

    If this capital project is voter-approved, renovations to our K-8 school facilities will update health and safety systems and achieve energy efficiencies while addressing issues related to spaces that are stuck in a previous era and don’t meet the needs of our students.

  • The proposed Fairport for the Future 2025 project will include energy efficiencies. Highlights include:

    • Direct Digital Controls for building HVAC automation
    • Energy efficient, “smart” lighting in renovated classrooms
    • Restroom upgrades with high efficiency plumbing fixtures
    • Durable, long-lasting flooring solutions

  • The boundaries of the K-8 schools would not change, meaning that the footprints of our school buildings would remain the same.

  • Work outlined in the voter-approved Fairport for the Future 2023 Capital Improvement Project is ongoing at Fairport High School as of Summer 2025. Our Facilities department constantly assesses and addresses repair issues and building needs at each of our schools using funds from the annual Capital Budget that is part of the yearly school budget.

students disembark from a school bus and smile at the camera