While no decision has been made, the New Paltz Central School District’s (NPCSD) Board of Education is considering a recommendation by the facilities committee to close Duzine Elementary School at the end of the current school year. The move could save the district over $1 million per year.
The hypothetical plans to halve the number of elementary schools in the NPSCD include the closure of Duzine, the consolidation of Pre-K through fourth grade into Lenape Elementary, and adding fifth grade to New Paltz Middle School prior to the 2026-27 school year. Duzine could then be either leased or sold.
District officials said they don’t believe combining Duzine and Lenape would increase class sizes.
Additionally, the recommendation is to expand the Lenape playground over summer 2026 to accommodate the influx of former Duzine students. A Lenape parking lot renovation project would be adjusted accordingly to allow for expanded bus capacity and parking sites, with an estimated 29 buses rather than the current 16. Further study of busing the entire elementary student population to a single campus was deemed a necessary component prior to any decision being made.
The plans also suggest a need to develop a contingency classroom solution to address the possibility of adding elementary sections in case the ongoing drop in student population is reversed.
Since October 2000, the student population at Duzine has dropped from 510 to 306, not including 54 pre-K students. At Lenape, the student population has fallen from 601 to 368 over the same period. Similar losses were seen at the middle school (568, now 379) and to a lesser extend at high school (712, now 626.)
Duzine Elementary opened in 1963, five years before New Paltz High School and the district’s bus garage and facilities. Lenape Elementary opened in 1992, the baby of the bunch, particularly compared to New Paltz Middle School, which will hit its centennial in 2030.
In the study, presented to the board of education on Wednesday, February 5, the facilities committee estimated that in order to absorb Duzine students, Lenape would need at least 38 full-sized classrooms, which can be achieved by moving the fifth grade to the middle school.
That move, the committee suggests, would include the creation of a separate fifth grade elementary wing at New Paltz Middle School, where students would still be taught in an elementary model. The fifth grade move to the middle school “would take little or no money” compared to relocating them to another building in the district, surmised the report.
The closure of Duzine would likely not lead to the dismissal of any teachers or aides, said the facilities committee, but would include the reduction of one administrator, two secretaries, cafeteria and facilities staff and one nurse.
The estimated annual savings, including facility costs should they sell Duzine, would come in at an estimated $1,140,804. Facility costs, including electric, natural gas and water, total approximately $75,451.
The Duzine property was assessed in both 2023 and 2024 at $800,000, while the building itself was assessed at $5,320,000 over the same period. A real estate consultant said the district could anticipate a sale price somewhere in the latter range.
The facilities committee report claims that by leasing Duzine, the district would continue to receive $1 million in state aid over each of the next ten years, and based on a similar arrangement with the former Anna Devine Elementary in the Kingston City School District, could yield around $98,322 each year if leased to BOCES. But some members of the public asked that before any decision is made, that the potential cost of renovating Duzine for lease be included.
Matt Elkin, a first grade teacher at Duzine and parent, said he didn’t initially oppose the idea of closing the school, but has since changed his mind.
“When I heard the possibility of it happening at the start of the 2026 school year, I spent more time thinking about it, and the numerous potentially short-sighted pitfalls that could present itself in that amount of time,” he said. “And now, I’ve personally concluded that I don’t really support the idea at all.”
Janice Doherty, also known as Janice Hoffer, teaches second grade at Duzine and is a parent of a kindergartner. She acknowledged that her opposition might at least be partly emotional.
“It’s my home,” she said. “I love everything about it, every little thing about it.”
District officials stressed that closing Duzine is far from a done deal, and while some trustees said they favored the idea, others asked for further clarification of many of the details in the facilities committee study, as well as the possibility of other cost-saving options.
Superintendent Stephen Gratto said that while the discussion continues, it might make sense to give parents the opportunity to visit Lenape and New Paltz Middle School at some point to give them an idea of where their children might go if Duzine is closed.
“It would be highly appropriate to allow parents interested in seeing what Lenape looks like on the inside and what the middle school looks like on the inside,” Gratto said.
The next meeting of the NPCSD Board of Education is scheduled for Wednesday, February 19.
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