Facing voter rejection and declining enrollment, the Onteora School Board is weighing a scaled-down capital plan to consolidate grades K—12 on a single campus.
After voters turned down a $70.5 million proposal to close Woodstock and Phoenicia Elementary schools and consolidate students at a central campus in Boiceville, school officials went back to the drawing board. They initially revised the plan to $63 million, then trimmed it further to around $57 million on July 22.
A $33.2 million Proposition One would include an addition to Bennett Elementary accommodating ten classrooms and a new secure entrance, an expanded gym, safer bus drop-off and an updated traffic pattern. At the middle/high school, improvements include new science classrooms.
Proposition Two, at about $10 million, would include a new counseling center, nurses’ office and athletic field work. Add another 20 percent for contingencies and other costs, and the combined budget is around $57 million.
Student enrollment in the Onteora School District dropped by half in the last decade, precipitating a plan to move K-5 pupils from elementary schools in Phoenicia and Woodstock to Bennett Elementary in Boiceville, and grades 6-12 to the adjacent Onteora High School.
“We need to really figure out what is essential,” said school board Vice President Rick Knutsen. “What are the pieces of the project that are really essential for us to serve our kids and make sure that we don’t hit a fiscal iceberg?”
Some trustees, like Emily Mitchell-Marell, said strategic community outreach should be a priority.
“I’d much rather pander to the educators, parents, families, community members, than the person who really is going to vote ‘no’ no matter what,” she said.
“I just want to be really aware of that when we’re cutting things — why we’re doing that and who we’re doing that for, and if that’s even going to work. Because I think it won’t work.”
Discussions also included upgrading air conditioning in at least some of the rooms so that students do not suffer during the hottest days of the school year, particularly when they are taking Regents exams.
“We should all note that neither of our elementary schools have anything beyond window units in them right now for cooling. Hot days reduce academic performance by 15%. If it’s 90 degrees on the day you take an exam, you have a 12.3% less chance of passing and a 2.5% less chance of graduating than if it were 72,” Knutsen said.
“For every degree the temperature goes up, you lose 1% of what you’ve learned all year taking that exam.”
President Cindy Bishop said improving air quality and temperature control is more prudent in one elementary school versus two.
“The savings of putting air conditioning and improving air quality in one elementary school compared with two very under-enrolled elementary schools makes so much sense,” she said.
“And I’m just talking from a fiscal perspective right now, because if we have to keep two elementary schools open, we certainly can’t put air conditioning in one without putting air conditioning in the other. And our enrollment continues to decline.”
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