Every year, school districts clean up from the previous year and prepare for the next. Floors are waxed, light bulbs replaced and damage, to any part of school property, is fixed.
But at what point does the district examine the damage, and determine whether the routine management for the current year is out of the ordinary?
According to district officials from the North Colonie Central School District, that point had not yet been reached when over three dozen windows at the Maplewood School had been damaged over the course of the school year and into the summer.
As of July 1, the Maplewood School became an official member of the North Colonie Central School District family after an annexation was completed for the district to take over the Maplewood District and include it in its own.
When the school opens its doors for the 2008-2009 school year, it will no longer be its own entity, and its graduates will move on to schools within the North Colonie Central School District.
While Maplewood Principal Jerry Steele has expressed excitement about this transition, the school is now focusing on preparing, in the last month before school resumes, for school to start again.
According to Steele, he and a maintenance man in the school go out every morning and inspect the building. But they were not the only ones who have been inspecting the building lately.
Tim McGan, a resident of Latham, said he had gone for a walk at Maplewood and noticed, what he said, were nearly 40 damaged windows.
Spotlight Newspapers also observed that more than three dozen windows had breakage. On some panels, there was only a single hole, about the size of a nickel, with no spider-web-like cracks. A smooth, round and circular cut.
Others displayed a larger round break, bigger than a quarter, which cracked throughout most of the panels. On one panel, several circular cuts, the shape and size of a coffee can, were etched in the window.
Steele said he believes that most of the damages were caused by children throwing pebbles and stones from the school’s playground. He also said he knew of the window with the large circle shape cut into it, and that, They play hardball down on the field, it could have been a hardball that hit it.
According to Colonie Police Detective Lt. John VanAlstyne, Colonie police were conducting an investigation on the breakage, until district officials told the police that the breakage was `old damage,` and that they had known about it.
`There’s really no story here,` VanAlstyne said, before reiterating that `The school district had already known about it and said it was taken care of.`
Steele said the damage had occurred throughout the school year and into the summer, and that the district was waiting to repair the windows all together until the end of the year, before school resumes. As of last week, the last week of July, the repairs had not yet been made.
Another area of confusion with the damage is the number of windows that are broken. According to Steele, `six panels, or so` needed to be replaced, while other district officials said `only four` panels were broken.
Steele said he could not attest for how much repairs would cost, but that it would be `a couple hundred` dollars for each panel.
However, aside from fixing the exterior of the building with new windows, Steele, who said he has been at Maplewood for 17 years, said the school is taking other measures to prevent this situation from happening again in the future.
`One of the things that we’re trying to be proactive about is removing the stone out there,` he said. Steele said there have been discussions about replacing the stones in the playground, which he has suspected have been used to break the windows, with a `softer material,` like woodchips.
Another possibility, which Steele said will be continued down the line if problems persist, but not yet, is moving the playground away from the school.
Former Maplewood School District Board of Education President Peter Buckley attributed the damage to, `Just kids being kids,` but said that damage to the extent that currently exists at Maplewood, would probably be of concern to the board when he was on it.
Donald Clickner, who has lived next to the school for 16 years, said he had noticed the damage, but is not too concerned.
`There’s not a real vandalism problem,` he said, `With the amount of things that have happened over the years, sometimes things are going to happen.`
Steele also said he does not believe that there is a serious situation of vandalism going on throughout the community, and that the school wants to remain welcoming to the children. `I want children in the community to feel safe here at Maplewood,` he said.
Steele said the windows are to be replaced this month, before school re-opens.“