Newly seated Onteora trustee Clark Goodrich, who ran with a slate opposed to the district school reconfiguration plan, has changed his mind and now supports it.
“This is not about one community versus another community. That’s not what this is all about. This is about providing classrooms and teachers closest to where the majority of the students live,” he explained at the June 20 school board meeting. “After a personal tour of our buildings, I realized Bennett is every bit as beautiful as Phoenicia and Woodstock. And given Bennett is the largest elementary building and it’s centrally located it makes the most sense that Bennett’s 22 classrooms remain open.
“So we have to start there,” he said. “I look forward to working on the implementation of the already approved long-term plan. With all the school board trustees, superintendent Victoria McLaren and the Onteora community, it is time for us all to work together as one team with one common goal — to make the Onteora School District the best it can be.”
Goodrich ran on a slate endorsed by Onteora Parents Engaged Now, or OPEN, along with Emily Mitchell-Marell and write-in candidate Caroline Jerome. All three were elected, ousting board president Emily Sherry and trustees David Wallis and Kristy Taylor. OPEN was opposed to the closing of the Phoenicia and Woodstock schools.
Goodrich and Mitchell-Marell were seated May 16 to fill unexpired terms, while Jerome’s term begins July 1.
Goodrich responded to calls to save Woodstock and Phoenicia schools by saying it would be difficult for any school board to justify closing Bennett only to bus students to the smallest elementary school, Phoenicia. “Bennett’s size and location provides an option of a single centralized district-wide elementary building, which may be needed if enrollment continues to decline. And the voters would have to approve that,” he said.
The board approved a reconfiguration plan May 2 that calls for closing Phoenicia Elementary with the 2023-24 school year, with the eventual goal of a centralized campus by 2028. Bennett would become the sole elementary school, housing grades kindergarten through five, while the middle-high school would contain grades six through twelve. While not mentioned in the May 2 resolution, the plan eliminates the need for Woodstock Elementary. Changes would require modifications in the remaining buildings and necessitate voter approval.
Shorter bus runs
“With eliminating the nine bus runs in Phoenicia and the ten bus runs in Woodstock, we would have a little bit more staff to add to the Bennett runs which currently are 16,” transportation director Nicole Summer said. “All of the elementary runs average about 45 minutes from start to finish, first pickup to delivery at the school. If we were to strategically add about ten of the runs to Bennett in a consolidation, we would be able to make all of the bus runs approximately 30 minutes long,” she said.
That scenario leaves about nine drivers for standby due to illness and makes some drivers available for field trips and sports. “We average five to six a day for sports, which is very hard to cover. And we frequently subcontract with Cramden Coach and Tonchi Transit along with First Student just to get our students’ needs covered.”
Summer said the district-staffed bus runs average 1000 miles per day and the contracted runs nearly 4500 miles per day, which is “astronomical” in the 300-square-mile district. Some district-owned buses now have 260,000 miles on them, she said.
The reconfiguration of 2012 added 15 to 20 minutes to each bus run because it required routes throughout the entire district for each school, Summer said.
“I ask you to be logical, be selfless and above all understand that you represent the entire community. And when you make these choices I ask you to think of all of the students that your actions impact,” said student representative Noelle Crandell, who graduated June 23. “As I leave Onteora and as someone who’s been very active in school activities, I cannot help but feel scared about the dwindling enrollment. And while these might be merely numbers on spreadsheets to you, they’re empty desks and classrooms and empty bleachers at games to students.”
Emily Sherry is disappointed
This was the final meeting for Emily Sherry, who praised the work of superintendent Victoria McLaren and the administration.
“I cannot say just how important it is to have a team like the one that we have at Onteora. If there is any hope for this district, and there are days that I am not sure, this is your hope,” Sherry said. “And you all should do everything that you possibly can to keep them here, and to keep them engaged and active in working toward positive solutions for this community.”
Sherry said the Onteora community was incredibly divided. The recent school-board election was one of the most vicious in which she had been involved.
“I am just so disappointed in the way that this election was handled, in the way that I was treated,” Sherry said. “My business, my charity, my family. It’s a shame, because the chances of me agreeing to volunteer for something else in this community are pretty slim. And I would say that to anyone that I care about.”
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