‘Vote yes on the school bond’
BY SIGRID OLSON
Vote yes on the school bond. The ad by the so-called “CapeVoters” in the last Cape Courier urging you to vote no is highly deceptive. They talk at length about the cost, but the cost of a new middle school will increase property taxes by no more than 4% over their proposed solution. For the median house, that’s an increase of no more than $390/year, approximately $1/day for a solution that actually addresses Cape’s aging and somewhat decrepit school buildings, rather than paying for expensive renovations that won’t solve the fundamental problems.
They state that the SBAC did not approve option E, but the town overwhelmingly did. The new Middle School option, which is the one on the ballot, was the preferred option by nearly half of the survey respondents, compared to 14% who opted for the SBAC’s preferred Option B, which just kicks the can down the road.
They claim that a new middle school will do nothing to right-size Pond Cove, but neither does their preferred option. The Harriman report states that Option B will not increase the size of undersized classrooms and “a deficit of program space and restrooms remains.”
Lastly, they fail to mention that their option B is highly disruptive and not very effective. There will be substantial disruption to learning in the 2 years the construction will take place, requiring millions of dollars spent on temporary classrooms and some of the renovations will need to be replaced in 7-10 years.
