Article is based on an Oct 7 meeting and the proposal has significant changed. More information will be posted in an updated article.
With the Woodstock Elementary School closure on indefinite hold, the Onteora School Board has focused its efforts on a more palatable capital project that would make the goal of a single campus possible.
The project, which includes ten additional classrooms at Bennett Elementary, is now estimated at $50 million, down from the $70.5 million project rejected by voters in May.
The project would be financed by $35 million in bonds and $15 million from capital reserves.
While the school board hasn’t discussed the proposed resolution closing Woodstock Elementary School, Superintendent Victoria McLaren said shuttering the school would save $3.2 million in the first year of bond payments.
The administration has stressed that looming threats of state aid cuts may necessitate consolidation even if a bond fails again. If the district doesn’t get bond approval for Bennett, closing Woodstock would necessitate moving the fifth grade to the middle/high school. That prompted some to express concern about the appropriateness of grouping fifth-graders with older students.
“My personal concern is with fifth grade and middle school — the socialization aspect. It’s not necessarily classrooms or things like that, but obviously socialization between fifth grade and eighth grade. There’s a big difference there,” Trustee Clark Goodrich said during an Oct. 7 discussion.
“I don’t think that’s the kind of question that we can really answer right now. There’s a lot of planning that has to happen. There are a lot of ways for schools who have a 5–8 middle school … My son attended a 5–8 middle school. Honestly, he didn’t have any issues with interacting with the older students,” she said.
In some districts, fifth- and sixth-graders travel together, and seventh- and eighth-graders are grouped together.
“That’s an option. But at this point, it’s really hard to project what the interactions would be,” she said.
“What I understand — every month that goes by, I feel like at this point, the percentage chance that fifth grade does go to the middle school is increasing,” Trustee Jenny Jared said.
“I tried to play out all these different scenarios on paper for myself because those community members might say nothing has changed in 20 years, but that’s very, very untrue. Things have changed in two years. Things have changed since last year,” she said.
“Things have changed since July, when we had a really big offset to our state budget. And the only scenario that I can see that keeps K-5 together for sure is expanding Bennett while we have the capital as a district to make that doable for the community.”
Board President Cindy Bishop said things are dire at the state level.
“The state of New York is spending more money than they’re taking in. We are running out of money,” she said.
“If we lose our federal education funds and we lose some of our state education funds, we are really going to be in very serious trouble. We will not be able to keep operating.”
Vice President Rick Knudsen said it is critical to get a bond passed in December.
“I really do feel that way just because we are in such a volatile situation in the world,” he said.
“We’ve built momentum in terms of educating the community about the various elements of the first proposition. And if we run it again out to next May, it just creates so much opportunity for division, confusion, mixed messaging in the community,” he said.
Goodrich said he agrees that a bond for Bennett is a priority.
“It just keeps wearing the community down, you know. We need to end the anger. We need to just come together as a community and move on. If we can get that passed, I think it’ll go a long way toward bringing everybody together,” he said.
“And I said this last meeting — I’m concerned about the polarization filtering down to the students. You know they’re involved. They probably read social media too. And I’ve almost stopped reading social media here because it just gets a little too crazy. And there’s a lot of misinformation out there.”
The board is now considering one voter proposition for high school science classrooms, athletic field upgrades and soccer field drainage, and another for Bennett including 10 classrooms, a library upgrade, office improvements and a security vestibule.
The board will continue discussion at a special meeting Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. in the middle/high school auditorium.
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