The Bethlehem Central School District’s Board of Education will be considering a proposal to use Clarksville Elementary as a substation for the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Craig Apple and Superintendent Michael Tebbano met Dec. 1 to discuss the idea. Apple has proposed using the school for at least five years as a cost-cutting measure for his department.
“Hopefully this will end our negotiations and they’ll be able to accept our offer,” said Apple.
One stipulation of the agreement is that the Sheriff’s Office would provide extra policing at Bethlehem High School during the final two months of the school year. The district has previously paid the Bethlehem Police Department around $30,000 for that service.
Apple told The Spotlight in October that the district initially quoted a cost of $80,000 a year for utilities alone. The Sheriff would not disclose the proposal that the board is likely to consider at its meeting Dec. 7, nor would district officials.
The district shuttered Clarksville Elementary at the end of the 2010-2011 school year due to declining enrollment. Tebbano has said that it’s a priority for the district to be able to reopen that school when enrollment increases.
