POPLAR RIDGE -- With one week remaining until a scheduled capital project vote, the Southern Cayuga Central School District gave the public an opportunity to weigh in on a planned $1.58 million proposal to upgrade its facilities.

Superintendent Mary Kay Worth obliged school board members and a small audience of taxpayers Wednesday night in the high school cafeteria with an outline of the plan -- as well as an explanation of the state EXCEL grant monies that will fund the majority of upgrades and repairs.

EXCEL, which stands for Expanding our Children's Education and Learning, is a one-time state grant to schools for the express purpose of enhancing a school district's facilities. Southern Cayuga stands to get $292,500 in EXCEL aid: a calculation based on factors like a district's enrollment and overall wealth.

Among the most significant enhancements in store for buildings: boiler room renovations at $290,000; control upgrades to monitor and improve distribution of heat at $140,000; domestic hot water upgrades at $25,500; technology enhancements at $100,000; communications improvements in all buildings at $195,000; a new security system at $160,000 and a closed circuit security system at $90,000.

Financed over a 15-year period, the project would cost 2 cents per $1,000 of a fully-assessed home, or a yearly tax increase of $1.60 beginning with the 2009-10 school year. If approved, construction would start in the summer of 2008.

Some at Wednesday night's meeting questioned plans to upgrade the campus' 40-year-old boilers without taking additional steps to seal and further insulate the building to curtail heat loss and conserve energy.

Architects on hand from King & King, the company overseeing the project, assured that money had been allocated for miscellaneous spot-caulking.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.