Riverhead votes today on $123M school bond project

Voters in the Riverhead school district will go to the polls Tuesday to decide if the district should undertake its most ambitious reconstruction project ever, a $123-million bond that calls for converting one school into an administration building and making major renovations in every other building.

Voting will be from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Riverhead High School gym.

The district would sell bonds in stages, to correspond to construction. The cost of the bond to a typical $400,000 house would be a maximum of about $270 a year from 2013 to 2018, and about $208 a year from 2019 to 2030.

Precise costs would depend on interest rates when the bonds are sold, and how much state aid the district gets for the work.

School officials say at least $22 million is needed for repairs, including roof replacement for one school that has not had the roof redone since it was built in 1929.

The school district covers most of Riverhead town, and includes small parts of Southampton and Brookhaven towns.