School district considers combining elementary buildings


 


PINE PLAINS — The district is looking to conduct a study on combining the Cold Spring and Seymour Smith elementary school classes into one building.

At a Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 6, the board formally requested that the school administration look for consultants to conduct the study.

Both district Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer and school board President Helene McQuade said they are looking at the building usage of both schools, and they are not specifically considering closing Cold Spring Elementary.

"If you look at that meeting’s agenda, you will see that there was nothing there about closing Cold Spring," Kaumeyer said. "The topic was about suggesting a consultant that would examine the financial issues of combining both schools into one building. It would be unfair for the consultant to preprogram a result of which building should be considered. A truly objective study would look at both buildings to get an objective analysis."

Kaumeyer said the district has spent two years examining a way to reconfigure the elementary schools to better utilize class distribution.

"We should have a consultant to do an alternative analysis as well," Kaumeyer said. "Aside from the speculation about Cold Spring, there has also been a lot of talk about how many millions of dollars that could be saved by reconfiguring the building usage. However, that is all speculation without analysis."

McQuade said any decision would not be made until next year.

"There is still a lot of work that needs to be done," McQuade said. "We need to do the work in order to fully evaluate, understand and communicate the options available to us. There is a lot of work that needs to be done before any decision can be made. We are still in the process of deciding on a consultant."

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