KINGSTON, N.Y. -- The Kingston City School District wants to give the Meagher Elementary School a facelift.

The $4.3 million for the project comes from the district's Capital Reserve Fund. The goal is to turn the school into a District Pre-Kindergarten Center and new administrative building.

"I'm sure community members don't like looking out of their back window and seeing an empty school," said Kingston School District Superintendent Paul Padalino, "and what they'll see instead now will be a vibrant school with 4-year-olds and teachers and administrators coming here every day, and I think that's a real positive for the community."

Architects of the project said the building has a lot of character, and they're hoping to preserve some of that.

"Each one of the buildings has its own charm to it," said architect Bryan Manning. "One is from the mid-1800s. An addition was put on in 1917, and an addition over here was put on in 1963, so the various vintages have their own challenges."

Some facets of the building will remain, but officials said it will be updated into a modernized building.

"We're putting new boilers, we're putting new windows, we're putting historic windows back into the building. On the inside of the building, there are a lot of infrastructure needs in terms of floors and ceilings. The whole place will be painted. There will be new LED lighting installed," Manning said.

Padalino said the school closed in 2012 because of budget cuts. Once renovated, it will serve approximately 120 children in the Kingston area.

"This will really just supplement what we're already doing with our private partners through our UPK grant, so we're looking to serve the students who aren't in those programs," Padalino said.

Padalino said the Kingston community will be able to vote on the proposed capital renovation project at the next board of education and school budget election on May 16.

"The board puts money into that account through our regular budget or some other resources that comes through to make sure we have some money if we want to do a project like this,” Padalino said.

He said if the project passes, construction on the school will begin in the next few months. The school is expected to open in 2019.