AUBURN - Auburn school district residents can expect to see advertisements next month for an Oct. 17 referendum asking them to approve school facility upgrades - including the installation of synthetic turf at the Auburn High School practice field.

The Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education unanimously approved bond resolutions Tuesday night enabling them to borrow, with voters' approval, $15.3 million for an overall capital improvement project. Voters will have a chance to consider two separate proposals encompassed in the total project, one contingent on the other.

Should voters shoot down the first proposal, which authorizes borrowing $13.4 million to make safety, energy and facility upgrades that include new roofs for the high school and for East Middle School, the second proposal - which allows the district to borrow up to nearly $1.9 million for the synthetic field - will automatically fail as well.

The total project is 88.1 percent state aidable, and the district plans to use $1.5 million in a one-time state EXCEL grant intended for use toward capital building projects.

The estimated net local share for the project comes to $3.4 million, or 15 percent of the projected net cost, including interest, placing the average cost to taxpayers with a basic STAR exemption at $11 a year.

Superintendent John Plume stressed the importance of an October referendum, and said waiting until November elections could delay state approval for the roof projects as long as four years. Plume also speculated the separate referendum might eliminate possible confusion for voters who stand to consider a slew of other proposals at the November polls.

Plume offered up a tentative time-line for the project. Pending voters' blessing, the district will submit plans for the roof projects to the state education department for approval. Between Nov. 2006 and July 2007, architects will set to design the capital improvement project with input from administrators and faculty. Window upgrades at Seward and Owasco Elementary schools, as well as Auburn High School, would begin next summer, as would the construction of the roof projects. Over that same summer, the district would send the balance of the projects to the state education department for approval. Between Jan. and Feb. 2008, the district would start the bid process for construction.

Architects have worked to increase the amount of state aid for the projects by reducing the scope of improvements on the Thornton Avenue administration building. Ted Mountain, the lead architect on the project, said his firm had been able to reduce the initial cost estimate to the project by 14 percent, attributing, for instance, technology upgrades for the administration building to similar, districtwide improvements.

The sum total of both proposals amounts to roughly a third of a total $41 million capital improvement project architects had initially identified in 2004.

In other news:

* The parent of a former East Middle School student spoke in favor of enlarging the elevator in that building. Barbara Schardt said her daughter's chronic medical issues had sometimes necessitated use of the elevator to transport her from one floor to the next. The elevator, she said, was too small at times to accommodate her daughter, whose neuromuscular problems at times interfered with her ability to stand upright.

* School officials conferred high school diplomas on several students who had met requirements over the summer to graduate. Iced cake with lavender sugar flowers awaited graduates and people on hand to commend their work. “It's difficult to get through high school in four years, what an incredible accomplishment it is to stick out this process to receive your diploma,” said board president Michael Stearns. Another program will follow in two weeks to accommodate those who couldn't make it.

Staff writer Olivia Goldberg can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 235 or at olivia.goldberg@lee.net