ALDEN — On Nov. 6, 72 percent of voters in Alden and Conger said yes. Now, they’re trying to figure out what that means.

Thanks to that vote, the Alden-Conger school district has permission from the community to reallocate funds leftover from a 2015 project, which was completed with a surplus of almost $1 million. It’s the subject of Wednesday’s 6:30 p.m. community meeting hosted by the school in its cafeteria.

After voters approved use of the funds for further projects — rather than temporarily lower taxes — Alden-Conger Superintendent Brian Shanks said he sent out a letter with a now-closed survey also linked to on the district’s website. It was two questions: Rate the priority of project suggestions, and provide ideas for anything else the survey-taker would like to see the district do with the funds, which are earmarked for school facility acquisitions or upgrades.

Survey results showed the community’s top three priorities were to renovate the existing sports field, build new elementary playground equipment and build a three-stall garage with storage, Shanks said. Other list items included installing a loading dock, school-run day care, building a supermileage and metals shop and paving parking lots.

That $1 million will not extend far enough to cover it all, Shanks said.

“The hope would be that we’ll get some things done this summer and then just see where this leaves us,” Shanks said. “… The ultimate goal, I would say, would be … summer of 2020 that we would be done — done with everything we’re going to get done.”

Some of the overall list items came from a “grandiose” wish list started by the school district and the community three years ago, at the start of the project that would eventually leave the current funds behind for later use.

“We included everything in there,” Shanks said.

However, when initial estimates returned with cost projections, some of the list items — items like the supermileage and metals shop, the garage and sports complex improvements — hit the cutting room floor.

Other items were added to the list more recently: the playground equipment, a loading dock and day care.

List items not budgeted into the $1 million project will be tabled, Shanks said. While there’s no timeline for when tasks not accomplished this time around will be addressed, he has seen the community step up to check off list items before.

“The way our community goes about and says, ‘Well, if there’s a need and this is something that the school really believes needs to get done,’ the community has proven time and time again that they will help the school accomplish some of the tasks,” he said.

In 2015, an approximately $10 million referendum passed that allowed the school to install an all-new HVAC system, a new chiller and complete a four-classroom addition as well as install a pitched metal roof over roughly half the building, Shanks said.

“I’ve never heard of it before, coming that far under budget and then people saying, ‘Yeah,’” Shanks said. “‘You’ve already got the money. The taxes have been assessed. Go ahead and spend it again.’ That’s really what Alden and Conger have told me. So it’s a pretty exciting opportunity in a small school (and) a small town.”

Shanks attributed the leftover funding to good bid timing and some economic decisions made as the 2015 project was executed.

He said he is excited to put the final touches on an old project and to once again better the school and community. The list items this time around were largely for projects outside the building because the indoor needs were largely met with the previous referendum’s changes, the superintendent said. He said he was upfront with the community about the shape of district buildings before the November vote.

“We’ve got our building where we need it to be,” Shanks said he told the community. “We’ve been doing fine with all these other things that haven’t been getting done. So if you vote no, we’ll be fine. … This is the frosting on top of the cake. This is the bow.”