The Guilderland Central School District is turning to physical space in its quest to control costs.
The district held a community meeting Tuesday, Sept. 3, at the high school to have Paul Seversky, a consultant with the planning service at Madison-Oneida BOCES, discuss the goals and methodology of a district-wide building capacity study he will soon begin.
“This will be fantastic tool for us here in Guilderland as we work to make really good decisions on behalf of our kids,” Superintendent Marie Wiles said.
Seversky will analyze how the district uses building space, scheduling patterns, current enrollment and future enrollment trends. After gathering this data and performing observations of facilities, he will present several options for the district to use existing space with certain programming models.
Over the next several months, Seversky will review if there are more cost-effective ways or patterns to organize programming from kindergarten to 12th grade over the next three years.
“I would suggested this an example of good, diligent planning by the board and your superintendent,” Seversky said. “Given this new normal that we are all in … there is a whole new normal to financials and more importantly, to demographics of our country.”
He said people are not having kids at the same rate that prior generations have, which has resulted in school districts seeing declining enrollment.
“Previously, successful ways in decisions on how to serve young people may or may not be viable solutions in this new normal,” he said.
According to Seversky, the Board of Education and superintendent do not have any preconceived notions on what the results of the study might yield. As an outsider, he said he does not want to know what the “politics” are of the situation and what any group of stakeholders may want.
“The job is to hold up a mirror to a lot of real data and real understandable data that exists,” he said. “Looking at that data … organizing it so that the board and the community can utilize that data as a tool to answer the study question.”
The baseline data will include enrollment projections, pupil capacity of the schools, local class size goals, local culture of deploying staff, programming elements, visiting each school through a tour hosted by the principal and an interview session with the district’s leadership team.
He also plans to have elements of the study, such as enrollment projections, posted online before the entire study is completed. He said all of the final options presented would be “doable” options for the district.
“The heart of the study is using existing resources to best serve young people,” he said.
The various options identified for the district will each have its unique challenges and opportunities. Sometimes, he said opportunities would become challenges and vice-versa.
“There is not going to be one that is all roses,” he said.
Once the study is completed and results are published online, a community focus group would likely be established, to include around 30 to 40 community members to represent a diverse range of stakeholders. The focus group would ensure the list of opportunities and challenges for each scenario is complete.
“This is a community taxpayer decision,” Seversky said. “My job is to listen and record ideas and perceptions of the various scenarios that are in the study.”
He said the district isn’t in dire financial stress, which allows time for the community to weigh the best programming option.
“Your district is not in crisis,” he said. “There are districts I work with that are in crisis and they are literally out of money.”
He added the study “isn’t all about closing schools,” but that could be presented in options.
Board of Education member Colleen O’Connell said the study sounds more long-term than the “next three years,” with a longer focus of the next five to 10 years.
Seversky said enrollment data for secondary students would be forecasted for the next 10 years, which could provide an indication of what the future might bring. He said the study would also name possible variables that could affect enrollment.
“We will use the best data we know at the given time,” he said.
Wiles said the district is also discussing a capital improvement project. There are two separate recommendations totaling more than $18.2 million.
The building capacity study wouldn’t be complete before voters are asked to consider a capital project, but Wiles said some improvements would need to be made regardless of the study’s conclusions.
“We need to have a good understanding of the relationship between our needs and our building capacity for student programs,” Wiles said. “We also have basic housekeeping kinds of needs with the seven buildings that comprise our school district. That work truly must be done no matter what.”
Wiles said the outcome of the study would be considered before the district borrows any money for the improvements, so voters would be approving a “threshold” for the district to borrow.
To view Seversky’s presentation, visit the district’s website.