An outside consultant revealed the blunt truth about Guilderland Central School District: There is too much space not being used. Every option Paul Seversky, a consultant with the planning service at Madison-Oneida BOCES, offered to more effectively use existing building capacity across Guilderland schools involved closing an elementary school. Four out of the five scenarios would shutter Altamont Elementary School, with the other closing Lynnwood Elementary School. The potential savings for scenarios ranged from $1.16 million to $1.99 million. The school district hosted a community meeting Monday, June 16, for Seversky to discuss findings from his building capacity study and some scenarios the district could pursue to reduce expenses. Around 75 people came out for the meeting. Seversky did take questions, but wouldn’t offer his opinion.
“It would really be inappropriate for me to answer a question like, ‘OK, Paul. What should we do?’” he said. “I’m a guest outsider. It’s your community. It’s your kids. It’s your money. … It’s a road map, but it doesn’t really specify what road you should take.” Seversky said all documents the school board and officials have are what has been publically released. “There is no other document. There is no executive summary. This is it,” Seversky said. “Everybody has the same information to take a look at and study and to think about the ramifications that the study suggests, as well as the opportunities and challenges of every scenario.” Unused space at the Farnsworth Middle School trumped every other building in the district. Approximately 30 percent of the pupil capacity at the middle school is not being used. There were 1,141 students enrolled at the school this year, with it able to serve up to 490 more students. Seversky recommends having at least 5 percent unassigned for program delivery flexibility. Still, around of a quarter of the middle school isn’t being used. Guilderland and Lynnwood elementary schools came close to being tied for the least amount of building space not being used, with both falling around 15 percent. Pine Bush and Westmere elementary schools had about 22 percent of space unused. Altamont had the most building space not being used out of the elementary schools, falling around 24.5 percent. Across all elementary schools, there was around 19 percent of building space not used, which could serve up to an additional 507 students, according to the study. Over the last decade, the district has rented a significant amount of space to Capital Region BOCES, which has helped offset costs. Districtwide, the space rented to BOCES could serve up to 458 students, according to the study. “You are renting to BOCES the equivalent of one whole school building,” Seversky said. “In essence, for 10 years, you have been operating with only four elementary schools for your Guilderland population. That has been a great way to retain … all of your neighborhood schools.” He said renting was a smart decision “business-wise” for the district and has led to more than $550,000 annually in revenue. This also offered the benefit of collaborating with specialists, he said. The largest 2013-14 elementary school enrollment was Guilderland at 576 and the smallest was Altamont at 290. The remaining three elementary schools ranged from 396 to 445 students enrolled. The high school had around 20 percent of unused space, with the ability to serve up to 443 more students. There were 1,736 students enrolled this year. The class size “equity gaps” varied when looking at different grades across the elementary schools. These gaps are described in the study as the difference in class sizes for schools in a certain grade. A larger grouping of a grade-level of students in a certain attendance zone sometimes hinders effectively delivering a program. The largest gap was in kindergarten, with an equity gap of 8 pupils, or a 34 percent difference from the highest to lowest class size. Altamont had an average kindergarten class of 15.5 students, while Lynnwood had the largest average at 23.5 students. The smallest class size gap was in second grade at 5.2 pupils, or 23.1 percent. The smallest second grade average class size was Westmere at 17.3 students, with Altamont the highest at 22.5 students. Out of the 103 classes sections across the elementary schools there were 34 percent below the district’s minimum class size goals. Another 15 percent were exactly at the minimum goal. There were five classes across all elementary schools at the district’s maximum goal, and only one class exceeding the goal. Over the past six years, enrollment across the elementary schools has followed varied trends.
Guilderland has seen the largest growth in enrollment over the last six years at 11.4 percent. Pine Bush Elementary School has seen the largest decline at 19.5 percent. Westmere saw enrollment drop 3.9 percent, and Lynwood saw a 9.3 percent decline. Altamont has remained almost unchanged. Unless the school community develops another option, an elementary school will close. Scenario B involves serving K-5 across four elementary schools and closing Altamont for a projected savings of $1.16 million to $1.52 million. Scenario E also would close Altamont, but would have K-2 served at Lynnwood and Westmere and 3-5 at Pine Bush and Guilderland. This scenario was projected to save from $1.62 million to nearly $2 million. The three other scenarios all involve shifting fifth grade to the middle school.
Scenario C would close Altamont and serve K-4 at four remaining elementary schools. Scenario D would do the same except instead close Lynnwood. Both have similar saving projected from $1.34 million to $1.77 million. Scenario F would have K-2 at Pine Bush and Guilderland and 3-4 at Lynwood and Westmere. Once again, Altamont would close. This scenario is projected to save from $1.62 million to nearly $2 million. “I suggest the options are doable and that they are educationally sound,” Seversky said. “Are all the possible options in the world on those pages, no. … It is really doable in regards to the tools you have already and regards to the potential number of kids you’ll have.” There were two other scenarios included Seversky’s report, which were doing nothing (scenario A) and the school community developing its own option (scenario G). Scenarios “E” and “F” followed the Princeton model for elementary schools, which has the typical K-5 grades split across two schools. The students would have the same classmates, but move to a different school after second grade. The Princeton plan is projected to yield the most savings, but the unused space at the middle school wouldn’t be tapped. Altamont could not be used for this format, Seversky said, because the school could not house the number of students required. “The biggest asset you have is the middle school,” Seversky said. “The size of the building, the amount of unused space, and how the building is built. … It is a big building, but it already has the concept of houses.” The three scenarios taking advantage of the middle school’s unused space would require additional talks on how integrating fifth grade into the building would be organized. Seversky said the middle school is large enough to allow for the fifth-grade to be completely separated from the other grades. He also said the school could be divided in half, grouping fifth and sixth graders together. This would allow for the traditional middle school instruction model to continue for seventh- and eighth-grade, while the other two grades have an elementary model. Several people attending the community meeting were concerned about Altamont Elementary School being slated to close in all but one of the scenarios, along with any proposal to close it. Deb Ronan McKee, who attended Altamont and worked at the school, said she moved to the village so her children could attend the school. She worked as a librarian clerk at the school, but works now at the high school. “How do you measure the intangibles?” McKee said.
She said students visit with senior citizens every Tuesday, held a lemonade stand in the village park during the school day and often walk to school. Seversky said discussing such ramifications of closing the school is a conversation the community needs to have before making a decision. Altamont Principal Peter Brabant said closing the school would have a significant impact on the community. “The unique setting of the environment of that community school in the village, I think the perception is that will have a higher impact on the price of homes, people’s willingness to buy there,” Brabant said. Shortly after the district posted the study to the website, about a week before the meeting, Brabant said he was informed people have called Realtors to cancel home viewings. Seversky said, while he doesn’t doubt Brabant claims, it doesn’t fit the historical pattern.
“If there was that much interest in that area, then Altamont’s enrollment would not be just stable as it has been,” Seversky said. “They are looking at the K-12 quality of a school.” He said more current research suggests homebuyers look at a school district’s overall quality, not individual schools within in, to decide on where to live. Property taxes will also play a significant role. One man chimed in saying he built his home in Altamont so his children could go to the school.
Some Altamont students might have lengthy bus rides if the school closed.
The study said the student the farthest away from Altamont travels 4.12 miles on a bus to get to the school. If the school closed, that student would have to ride either 10 miles to Lynnwood, 10.8 miles to Pine Bush, 11 miles to Guilderland, or 13 miles to Westmere. Guilderland Board of Education members and district administrators are not planning on publicly sharing their opinion on proposals for a few months. Most likely, board members won’t weigh in until the community narrows down the options. Wiles said, at the board’s meeting the night after the Seversky’s presentation, district administrators cannot discuss what they think is the best idea, along with school board members, until the public has weighed in. “The community will read into your offhand comments and assume that’s what we’re doing,” Wiles said. “One of the tensions I felt in the room last night is that there are members of our community that believe we have already made a decision, and that is not true. That is not true. Nothing could be further from the truth.” A community focus group will be formed and meet in September to provide the “next step in the research,” said Wiles. Thirty community members, “representative of all various stakeholders,” will be selected for the focus group, which will attend a daylong session. Seversky will lead the group discussion. “The purpose of that will really be to give our board more information for which to wrestle with when they think about what, if anything, to do next,” Wiles said. “The charge to that group will not be to create an eighth scenario, but rather to more completely flush out the pros and cons of each of those options to give to the board.” The school board could then focus on narrowing down the options, or combining some of the scenarios. There will likely be community conversations held after the school board narrows down the options. “The difference between the focus group and the groups that will follow is that the focus group will be designed to be done in a … representative way of the entire community,” Wiles said. “When we have community conversations, that is far from what happens. Not everyone’s voice is heard.” She said any decision made regarding the study would not be affecting the 2015-16 school year. The earliest decision would affect the 2016-17 budget. “If next year we are looking at making $2 million worth of cuts again, the urgency might move us,” Wiles said. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” Board member Catherine Barber commented on Seversky’s presentation being lengthy, lasting around an hour and 45 minutes, before any questions could be asked. Fellow member Colleen O’Connell said it would be fair to assume most people read at least the scenarios before coming to the meeting. O’Connell attended an earlier session on June 16 held for school staff members. “To have it read back to us … I thought it was inappropriate,” O’Connell said. “I stayed for an hour and 35 minutes, and I didn’t even get to the questions in the early session.” The study and a video of the community meeting is posted to the district’s website.
Districtwide, 22 percent of buildings unused
Enrollment, attendance effects
School closure key in options
Altamont school closure questioned
District leaders stay silent