Niskayuna school officials delay capital project vote

Niskayuna Superintendent Cosimo Tangorra, Jr., is seen in a November 2018 file photo. (Erica Miller/Staff Photographer)

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By Zachary Matson

Niskayuna school district officials plan to delay a capital project referendum orginally slated for December until late-January or February.

Superintendent Cosimo Tangorra Jr. during last week’s board meeting said the delay would give the district more time to work with its architects and other consultants to iron out details and give the state Education Department a chance to review the district’s plans prior to a public vote.

As recently as last month, Tangorra had indicated plans to go forward with a vote in December, but last week he said the intense focus on reopening school buildings to students and staff had diverted away from keeping the capital project on schedule for a December vote.

Tangorra also acknowledged parents and community members who raised concerns that the focus on the capital project was a distraction from creating reopening plans, but he committed to continue moving the capital project forward.

“We are still going to move forward,” Tangorra said, highlighting the district’s long-standing facilities needs. “It is absolutely necessary; there is no getting around it.”

While district officials have outlined a project cost ranging between $52 and $83 million, they have not offered a more specific price tag of what the district will ask voters to authorize during the referendum vote.