ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Community members got a closer look at the Elmira City School District's $139M capital improvement project on Wednesday night.  Set to go to vote soon, the plan includes hundreds of upgrades to city schools, at no additional costs to taxpayers.

Under this project, eleven schools, the bus garage, and maintenance and administration buildings are set to see dozens of upgrades each.  Projects include cooling systems, improvements to classrooms and playgrounds, roof replacements, among a wide variety of others.  $300M worth of facility improvements were noted in the 2023 Building Condition Survey, and the district says they picked the most essential and impactful improvements to improve in this plan.

"Behind the scenes, there's all kinds of things that have to happen to make our schools run, and so we address those issues within this project," said Hillary Austin, the ECSD Superintendent.  "Some of the important things that people may not think about are the things that we do to improve energy efficiency, and making sure that we're responsible with our taxpayer dollars throughout the year in terms of heating and cooling, and just running our facilities."

The district expects New York State to kick in $119M for this project, and the other $20M will come from district reserve funds.  This means Elmira residents wont see their taxes increase because of this project.

"We maintain 1.4 million square feet of footage in the district, and we have a responsibility to our community and to our taxpayers to make sure that we take good care of the properties that they're so kind to support yearly through the budget process," said Austin.  "We're excited that we're able to do a project that will maintain our facilities, upgrade spaces, improve upon safety and, you know, health and welfare features, but with no impact on our taxpayers within the community."

If passed, designs will be finalized in January of 2025, with an estimated completion date in 2030.  Voters have to approve the project before work can begin.  Elmira City School district residents can vote on December 10th from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.  Depending on where you live, you can vote at the Elmira High School or Ernie Davis Academy.