Binghamton MacArthur School Public Hearing

Residents of the Binghamton City School District will be able to comment on plans to build a new school at a public hearing Monday evening.

A referendum on the MacArthur Elementary School project is scheduled for a week later.

The hearing is to be in the old Columbus School building at 164 Hawley Street at 6 p.m. Monday.

The new building would replace the original MacArthur school that was damaged by the September 2011 flood.

Since the flood, MacArthur students have been attending classes at the former St. Thomas Aquinas School on Binghamton's West Side and at the former St. Francis School in Hillcrest.

Federal and state funding is expected to cover about 96 percent of the estimated $78 million net cost of construction and site preparation.

School district officials estimate the local cost of the proposed project will be $2.9 million. They say for a home assessed at $100,000, the annual property tax bill would rise by about six dollars.

Dr. Marion Martinez, the Binghamton city school superintendent, will discuss the MacArthur School project on Monday morning's Binghamton Now program on News Radio 1290 WNBF.