The search for new land to build a new elementary school brought several parents concerned over the closure of Malta Avenue Intermediate School out to the Ballston Spa Central School District’s Board of Education meeting Wednesday, April 9.
Many parents lamented that they had no say in the decision, which was adopted by the board before they decided to reconfigure in February.
Parent Shannon Hansen said she felt the decision to close Malta Avenue was not made effectively.
Most people didn’t know this was happening, Hansen said.
But according to Keith Stewart, board vice president, the process has been three years in the making.
Another mother said she was collecting signatures for a petition to oppose the closing of Malta Avenue, and only two people she had spoken with were aware that the school was actually going to close.
The Board of Education has been looking for land throughout the district on which to build a new elementary school.
In a Wednesday, April 2, meeting with the Malta Town Board, the Board of Education said they had looked at several parcels of land to purchase in Malta for the new elementary school.
`We do need to do a better job in communicating the factors that went into that decision,` Stewart said.
Once the new school is built, several years down the road, the district will close Malta Avenue Intermediate School to students, but will keep the building for administration offices.
Jennifer Edmiston, a mother of children in the district’s elementary school, said she is in favor of building a new school because the facilities at Wood Road Intermediate School are not comparable to those at Malta Avenue.
`We do need an updated facility,` she said.
While Edmiston said a new elementary school does need to be built, she said that the new attendance zones, announced earlier this month, are problematic.
`The map is very hard to understand,` Edmiston said. `It’s very misleading.`
She said if her children were to attend Malta Avenue Intermediate School from where the family lives on Church Street, her two children would be required to walk to school.
She said she is concerned about the safety of her children because they would have to cross Route 50 and Route 67 in Ballston Spa.
`We will look into the zones in relation to safety,` said Stewart.
The Board of Education adopted a reconfiguration plan in February to make the district’s four elementary schools kindergarten-through-fifth-grade compatible.
The principals will remain in their particular school, and Chuck Smith, who has been serving as the district’s transition advisor, will step in as interim principal at Milton Terrace North.
The four schools will be Malta Avenue Elementary School, Milton Terrace North Elementary School, Milton Terrace South Elementary School and Wood Road Elementary School.
As the schools are set up now, kindergarten to second grade classes are housed in Milton Terrace North and South, while students in grades three to five attend Malta Avenue Intermediate School or Wood Road Intermediate School.
District Spokesman Stuart Williams said fewer than a third of the students are physically moving to a new school, although the reconfiguration will affect all of the more than 1,800 elementary school children.
The new attendance zones will allow students from the same family, as well as neighbors, to attend the same school, he said.
Despite the reconfiguration, class sizes will remain standard with 18 to 25 students per class increasing by grade level according to Williams.
The Ballston Spa Board of Education will meet again Wednesday, April 23, in the high school library for a final budget discussion and adoption.“