Guilderland school district officials essentially hit the reset button on the community conversation regarding building capacity usage after tensions rose, primarily among Altamont residents, over the possibility of closing an elementary school.
District leaders held a community meeting Monday, Sept. 29, to discuss factors leading to the building capacity study and reviewing some of the data presented in it. The study, which consultant Paul Seversky completed, revealed 22 percent of building space districtwide is not being used. Seversky had included five scenarios at the end of the study, outside of doing nothing and any community developed options, but Board of Education members in August voted to set aside the scenarios following community backlash.
Four of the scenarios targeted closing Altamont Elementary School, with the other shuttering Lynnwood Elementary School. The potential savings for scenarios ranged from $1.16 million to $1.99 million.
Guilderland Superintendent of Schools Marie Wiles said the district had “a lot of questions” it wanted to ask regarding building capacity. The first mention of looking into a formal study was during a March 2011 budget presentation.
Some district residents have questioned why Seversky was chosen, but Wiles pointed to his experience in completing several similar studies for other districts. Seversky has had 40 years of experience in education and has held several different positions within the school system.
“He has extensive experience in gathering and organizing this kind of data and finding ways to analyze it to think through the problems and the options,” said Wiles.
Wiles said hiring Seversky was also the most cost effective option. The total cost of his study was $18,890, but since he’s with the planning service at Madison-Oneida BOCES, the expense is eligible for state aid. The actual cost to the district was approximately $8,330, which has already been paid.
Michael Saltsman, of Altamont, later asked how many firms were evaluated for the study contract, which Wiles answered by saying no other consultants were considered. The district does not need to do a typical request for proposals (RFP) process because its falls under a professional service, which is exempt, according to Wiles.
“We weren’t looking to spend a lot of money, and we had seen quality work from the same consultant on similar kinds of study,” said Wiles.
Saltsman asked if district leaders were happy with the completed study report. Wiles said the district was not “100 percent thrilled” with it.
“I’ll be very frank, there are elements of the study that are very disappointing,” said Wiles. “However, there is information in here that can guide our conversation.”
Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders talked about the district’s declining enrollment, which is driving the unused building space. There were 415 graduates last June while only 393 kindergarten students entered this year. The total enrollment for this school year is 4,908 students, while a decade ago it was 5,645.
“During the past 10 years, our enrollment has declined by 737 students and that’s about a 13 percent decline,” said Sanders.
In another decade, the district is projecting to lose at least 74 students, while at most it could lose 392 students.
The district’s long-range financial plan projects a budget gap of almost $1.43 for the 2015-16 budget. This gap generally continues to climb through the 2019-20 budget holding a projected $1.83 million budget gap.
A second community meeting will be held in a workshop format Thursday, Nov. 6, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Guilderland High School. District residents will be invited to share ideas for addressing some of the challenges the district faces regarding building capacity.
District leaders are also planning to form an advisory group to review, discuss and consider ideas generated during the November workshop.
The study found 2013-14 enrollment was below the minimum district goals for capacity at Altamont, Pine Bush and Westmere elementary schools.
The building with the most unused space though was the middle school with approximately 30 percent of its pupil capacity not being used. There were 1,141 students enrolled in 2013-14, but 490 more students could have been served.