COLONIE — Capital District voters approved a proposition to sell two Capital Region BOCES buildings on Tuesday, Aug. 9.
The choice to sell the two buildings that have housed the education program’s career and technical education and special education programs was overwhelming, 874 to 53.
The buildings slated for sale are the former Career & Technical Education, Albany Campus located at 1015 Watervliet-Shaker Road in Colonie and Maywood School located at 1979 Central Ave. in Colonie
The Career & Technical Education Center, Albany Campus and Maywood Academy will now be located in new, state-of-the-art facilities at 925 Watervliet-Shaker Road in Colonie.
Their former buildings will no longer be used by BOCES, but in May, when residents across the state voted on school budgets, voters in the South Colonie Central School District approved spending up to $1.9 million to purchase of the 13.1-acre BOCES site to convert into a new transportation and operations and maintenance facility.
The purchase of the BOCES site and its six buildings is the first step and does not include the cost of renovating the facility.
Construction plans will be part of the Next Generation Colonie Capital Project referendum that will go to voters this fall. Details for this project have not been finalized by the Board of Education, but it will likely include renovations to the existing district office instead of new construction and will include renovations to every school building in the district.
Last year, voters gave the district permission to spend up to $2 million to purchase 57 acres on Broderick Street — located off Central Avenue at the end of Walker Way in the Village of Colonie — by a vote of 731 to 418. The property has not yet been purchased and once officials discovered how difficult and expensive it would be to construct a new facility at that location they began exploring other options.
BOCES is nearly ready to open the new $64 million facility about a mile north of the old site on Watervliet Shaker Road.
