Rockland BOCES is proposing to build a $47.9 million project at its campus on Parrott Road in West Nyack. The project would include a new 52,000-square-foot two-story school building with a wing housing offices for administrators, guidance counselors and similar personnel. Once the new building is completed, the Culinary Arts program currently at the Jesse L. Kaplan School would be moved to the new building. Then, the space the program had been using at the Kaplan School would be converted into four new classrooms. The new building would have more than 7,000 square feet set up as commercial kitchen space along with two classrooms with kitchen equipment that would be used by the BOCES Culinary Arts program.
The new building would have a 7,500-square-foot gym, a 4,500-square-foot cafeteria, and 15 classrooms for the Hudson Valley P-TECH program. P-TECH (Pathways in Technology) helps prepare students for college studies and careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
BOCES is asking Rockland voters to take part in a referendum to be held next month that would authorize moving ahead with the project. BOCES plans to begin construction in the spring of 2026 and complete the project in the fall of 2027.
BOCES says that it needs the new facilities because the number of students it is serving has been soaring. It notes that student demand for career and technical education is growing. It says enrollment in Hudson Valley P-TECH has grown from 43 students in 2016 to 160 in 2023. BOCES says that P-TECH has been housed in the former Tappan Zee Elementary School and has outgrown that facility.
BOCES says that the new facility would help it eliminate costs of leasing space, help to consolidate programming and staff, reduce transportation costs and build equity and long-term financial strength for the agency.
BOCES says that the last time it undertook major construction at its West Nyack campus was in 1973. Although the new project would be funded by money from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and a portion of the Rockland BOCES capital budget, the cost would be passed along over a 25-year period to the eight school districts that make up the Rockland BOCES Supervisory District. Some of the costs would be covered under state aid the districts receive, while local property taxpayers also would pay for the project. BOCES says that the average cost to Rockland County residential taxpayers would be $2.36 a month, based on a property assessment of $500,000.
BOCES has been working with the architectural firm KSQ Design, which has offices in Manhattan and Tulsa. KSQ had done projects for the Kingston School District, the Rye School District and Nanuet High School among others.
