Clarkstown school district residents have been going to the polls in a steady stream today to vote on the Board of Education's proposal to borrow up to $6.5 million to repair Congers Elementary School.
But emotions have been running so high about the bond, the school's and the district's problems, that people who were willing to talk to a reporter didn't want their names used.
Outside Lakewood Elementary School, a woman said she voted for the plan to save Congers by repairing it.
"My children went to school there through sixth grade," she said. "It has a wonderful feel to it, there's a closeness and caring that's worth keeping."
But a couple of miles away, at Clarkstown North High School, another woman said she thought long and hard about it. She worried, for example, about the larger class sizes in the district's other elementary schools if Congers stays closed.
"I always feel I should vote 'yes' for everything because education is so important. But other schools need work—this high school, for example—with limited resources I'm not sure that rebuilding a school for so much is the best way to use the money," she said. "People put my kids through school and I have an obligation to other people's kids—but I did say 'no.' We should use the money to improve the situation for more of the district's kids."
The polls close at 9 p.m.
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