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New Paltz Times - Featured Arts | 11/12/2009 |
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Sending a message
New Paltz School District readies for public forums on middle school |
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by Mike Townshend
After about two hours of debate, the New Paltz Board of Education has the message that it wants to send the public about the proposed renovation of the New Paltz Middle School.
Board members are gearing up to make their final vote in January on whether or not to bring a bond initiative to voters for a project which could cost $52 million.
According to Superintendent Maria Rice, the presentation at four upcoming community forums will try to answer the tough questions that the public has so far asked.
One of them has been why the district settled on renovating the Main Street landmark rather than building new somewhere else.
"There's a whole history to what the board is doing," Rice explained. In 2007, concerned parents and New Paltzians lobbied the school board hard to keep the school where it has been. District officials got a petition with 800 signatures from people living in all seven towns comprising the New Paltz Central School District, asking them to save the old building.
"The board took its direction from the community, which pretty much demanded a green renovated building," she added.
Recently, there's been a minor community backlash against the project. Parents who've attended the earlier public forums have demanded to know how much relocating the middle schoolers for one year's worth of construction would cost -- and moreover how it would actually work.
Others have criticized the superintendent and Board of Education for considering a $52 million renovation in the face of one of the most dire economic climates since the Great Depression.
District officials said their new presentation will try to address these worries, breaking down costs for the median homes in New Paltz and Gardiner -- which make up the bulk of the district's population.
According to Assistant Superintendent Richard Linden, the middle school project just got some good news. Recently, state officials have hinted that the aid money could cover more of the project than expected.
"It looks like it's going to be $37 million," said Linden, noting that the school district had anticipated that state building aid would cover only $30 million of the project.
The newest presentation will take into account the latest information about state aid and attempt to show what the local share would be -- and exactly how that would impact taxpayers.
Relocation of the students for one year while construction goes on has a lot of parents worried. But Superintendent Rice said she's continuing to look for ways to solve that problem before the community votes on the bond issue in late February.
Right now the district is in preliminary negotiations with SUNY New Paltz to see if relocating the middle school to the campus might be an option. Previously, Rice had said that college President Steven Poskanzer had ruled out that possibility.
However, he recently changed his mind. "So there is the possibility -- but there's no guarantees," she explained. "If that happens, we have more possibilities."
Another quirk of the building schedule should spell some immediate relief for taxpayers. Because the building wouldn't go up until at least 2011, the tax levy next year wouldn't be impacted at all.
Here is a list of the upcoming community forums, PTA meetings and superintendent's coffee gatherings regarding the proposed middle school renovations: Nov. 16, community forum, 7 p.m. at Lenape; Nov 17, Duzine/Lenape PTA meeting, 7 p.m. at Duzine; Nov. 18, superintendent's coffee, 8:30 a.m. at the District Office; Nov. 19, middle school PTA, 6:30 p.m. at the middle school; Dec. 1, community forum, 7 p.m. at the high school; Dec. 9, community forum, 7 p.m. at the middle school.
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© 2010 Ulster Publishing, Inc.
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