South Colonie school district closes on BOCES property
COLONIE — South Colonie Central School District said last week it closed the deal on the former Capital Region BOCES property, a 14acre, $1.9 million site at 1015 Watervliet Shaker Road.
The proposition approved by South Colonie residents last May will be used to construct and renovate a new transportation and maintenance facility as part of the district’s Next Generation Colonie, a $112.5 million referendum approved by voters in October to address aging infrastructure, improve instructional spaces and provide essential safety upgrades, school officials said.
The current transportation department site, built in 1948, has seen only minor enhancements over the years. In 1998 the state Department of Transportation deemed the building unsafe for their workers to inspect the buses — “yet our workers are still working in that same building today,” noted Superintendent David Perry.
The district then built a two-bay bus barn as an add-on.
“This isn’t about comfort and convenience, this is about being able to maintain our fleet,” Perry said in a statement. “The intention is to renovate two of the buildings to create a new transportation and maintenance facility to meet our growing fleet of buses and house our department staff in a safe and more efficient working environment.
That would be done in the last phase of the Next Generation plan, expected to be fully completed by 2028, he said. More information about the Next Generation Colonie project can be found at: https://www.southcolonieschools.org/nextgeneration-colonie/.