Guilderland school district leaders are looking to community members for solutions addressing excess capacity and waning resources after setting aside scenarios from a recent building capacity study.
The second community meeting, which was tentatively scheduled for Nov. 6, has been rescheduled to Wednesday, Nov. 19, and will be held at Tech Valley High School, which is located on the campus at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, formerly known as the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in recent months trying to answer some difficult questions in light of the challenges that are before us,” Superintendent of Schools Marie Wiles said at the Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Oct. 21. “We are at that point now where we’re looking for solutions; not just trying to determine whether or not we have a problem.”
School officials anticipate the event will be limited to 100 attendees, because of limitations of space being used at TVHS. District officials will send some people invitations to the event, but anyone will be able to apply through the district’s website.
“The purpose of this meeting is to generate ideas to move this district forward,” Board of Education member Judy Slack said.
Those who expressed an interest in serving on the building capacity study focus group, which is not being formed, will be sent a letter about the new event. Slack said the district would also invite other people the board hopes would be interested, including some business leaders.
“The people who will be invited are taxpayers in Guilderland because that is the constituency who will be affected by this and who have a rightful vote in it,” said Slack. “We also want people to know that we are listening to the community, and people are invited to speak at board meetings. People are invited to reach out through emails and letters.”
Slack said board members do read letters they received and feedback given at meeting.
“We are not trying to shut people out of this; we’re trying be as inclusive as we can for as broad an area of the community as we can cover,” said Slack.
Wiles said some people receiving an invitation are also people who might not typically visit the district’s website.
Registering online is expected to be an easy process. There will be a link in the letter posted on the district’s website that takes people to a page to enter RSVP information. People will be asked some demographic information, such as what attendance zone they live in and if they have any children attending district schools. District officials will maintain a database from these submissions.
“There is no need to call. There are no extra emails. We are trying to make it as simple as possible,” said Wiles.
Problems facing the district include declining enrollment, which has led to unused space in school buildings, alongside declining revenues from the state-imposed property levy tax limitations and reduced state aid.
The updated enrollment for the district this school year is 4,917 students, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders. That is eight students fewer students than the previous year. This places 2014-15 enrollment at 30 students more than the district had projected during budget development.
There were 12 fewer students across elementary schools. The middle school saw an increase of 17 students, but the high school had a decrease of 13 students. There are also 17 classrooms being rented districtwide.
The building capacity 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 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 children could have been served at it.
The district is projecting to lose at least 74 students over the next decade, but it could lose up to 392 students.
The capacity 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, other than doing nothing and any community developed options, but school board members in August voted to set aside the scenarios following community outcry over the fact that most of the scenarios involved closing Altamont Elementary School.
The district’s preliminary long-range financial plan projects a budget gap of almost $1.43 million for the next school year. This gap generally continues to climb through to the 2019-20 budget holding a projected $1.83 million budget gap.