BOE delays reconfiguration a year in face of public concern

PINE PLAINS — A special Board of Education meeting was held Monday, Feb. 23, to discuss whether the board’s decision on Jan. 21 to begin implementation of its elementary school reconfiguration plan was in fact the right move for the district.

Under the board’s proposal, kindergarten through grade two will be moved to Cold Spring Elementary, while all students in grades three to five will be housed at Seymour Smith Elementary. The board’s decision on Jan. 21 was to begin the process for implementation at the start of the 2009-10 school year.

Since that decision, a group of parents and residents have attended board meetings to criticize both the plan and the board’s method of alerting district residents of the proposed changes.

The complaints in review

Information about the process, which started approximately three years ago, has been made available through articles and advisories in local newspapers and postings at schools. Additionally, three community forums were held in December at Seymour Smith Elementary, Cold Spring Elementary and in Elizaville for residents to weigh in with their thoughts. However, many of the parents who have attended recent board meetings said they were completely unaware of the proposal or the board’s decision until a letter was sent home with their children after the board had already voted to move forward with the plan.

Due to criticism, the board scheduled a fourth community forum on Feb. 18, where several hundred residents gathered and many voiced their concern with various aspects of the plan, including long bus rides for their children and the psychological ramifications of separating younger children from their siblings.

At the end of that last community forum, a Board of Education meeting was held. The board voted unanimously to reopen discussion on the plan. A special meeting was scheduled for Monday, Feb. 23, in hopes of coming to a final decision on the matter.

More public comment

A few public comments opened the meeting, despite the board’s plea to keep the hearing brief. As board President Helene McQuade reminded the large audience, which was crammed into the Stissing Mountain Library, the board had already listened to more than 10 hours of public comment and was eager to begin discussion.

One public comment came from a parent who said the fourth community forum was the first time she had heard about the changes. She echoed many parents’ sentiments when she said that an hour-long bus ride for a small child is “unacceptable.â€

Another resident, Nathaniel Heiter, said he had spent $92 in postage to get several copies of a large rebuttal document he had written after the last community forum to the board before Saturday, so they had time to look through it before the special meeting. Heiter said that there was no crisis that demanded the board to act immediately on reconfiguration plans, and he said that some of the “same creative techniques†used in creating bus routes for the reconfiguration plan “could be applied to a K-5 model†at both schools, with student populations left the way they are currently configured.

Amanda Bishop, who had previously spearheaded a petition against reconfiguration that gathered more than 285 signatures before the last community forum, said if the reconfiguration plans were not changed, the district’s upcoming budget would be voted down and the three board members whose terms were up this year would not be re-elected.

The board takes up the matter

After the first public comment session ended, board discussion began. Each member read either a prepared statement or spoke about their research over the weekend, and explained what decision they had come to.

Mary Zayas, who opened discussion, was the only board member whose decision did not change. She said she had spent a good deal of time looking at the numbers, and she cited several figures, like the fact that both Seymour Smith and Cold Spring students spend upward of an hour on the bus already. Additionally, a fifth-grade class at Cold Spring currently has 27 students, and under the reconfiguration plan no class sizes would be made larger.

The rest of the board members said they had decided that while reconfiguration remained the best plan in their eyes, they recommended postponing it a year.

Vice President Bruce Kimball mentioned that, looking over the information, the longest bus ride in the reconfiguration plan would actually be 50 minutes.

“I’m convinced that reconfiguration would be the best thing for the elementary schools,†he said, “however, it’s obvious that a significant number of people are opposed.â€

The dissent created by implementing the plan for next year “would make it hard for us to face other board problems, like the upcoming budget,†he added, concluding that he had two proposals. The first would be to delay implementation until September 2010. The second would be to hold more community forums and presentations on the various ways the school district would be improved by the changes.

“Just as we have listened to you,†he told the audience, “I hope you will come with an open mind to these presentations.â€

Board member JoAnn Wolfe said, “We all must hold ourselves accountable to take interest in our children’s education.†She asked parents to “inquire rather than accuse†when seeking information about the issue.

As for the psychological effect that many parents said reconfiguration would have on their children, Wolfe argued that “children at the elementary school level are much more resilient than we give them credit for.†She added that if a parent spins the topic positively, then the child will think of it positively, and she urged every parent to do so.

Wolfe compared residents of Cold Spring and Seymour Smith as “the Hatfields and McCoys,†and said that she still believed the proposed model is the best for the whole district.

“With reconfiguration, we’re moving the district forward as one.â€

With the exception of Zayas, the board believed that a yearlong delay would give parents and residents an opportunity to look carefully at the reconfiguration model.

“We need to reach a comfort level in the relationship between parents and the board,†school board member Heather Boucher said. “We need to make sure the needs of parents are met.â€

After everyone on the board had a chance to speak, Zayas said she still was not convinced that delaying reconfiguration was the best choice. She pointed out that the district would be losing a year’s worth of savings, and that she didn’t see a clear benefit to postponement.

“The difference I see,†explained Kimball, “is that if this were to be implemented for September [2009], we must begin the process right now.†Part of that process, he added, must include a presentation to the entire community explaining all the things that will be impacted. “Further explanation is essential, and I don’t think we have time over the next few weeks to accomplish that. We’re up to our eyes in the budget process right now.â€

While district Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer said that the administration “can adjust to whatever time table [the board] decides on,†she said she was concerned that “in terms of culture and the current climate, I can envision there would be inadequacies in giving the opportunity for people to digest information.â€

“The trade-off is financial savings versus the comfort level of parents,†board member Brian Croghan said. “[The financial savings] is a big chunk of change, but I think it’s well worth it in the end.â€

A decision to wait

At the end of the discussion, the board’s prior decisions to begin implementation of the reconfiguration model was amended to begin implementation in time for the 2010-11 school year. Only Zayas opposed.

During the concluding public comments, several parents said that while they still remained opposed to reconfiguration, they were satisfied with the board’s decision, and they stressed that the district really needs to sell this to the community.

“If it’s really a great plan, in three years we’ll be saying why didn’t we do this sooner,†commented one parent, who said she was open to hearing the board’s presentation and hoped that “we can remedy this situation.â€

Other residents said while they appreciated the amount of time taken by the board in addressing the issue, part of their frustration was that they were not informed of the situation earlier. They suggested a general mailing to the entire district.

Earlier, during a brief budget discussion, Kaumeyer said funds would need to be earmarked for things like first-class mailings in next year’s budget to ensure that the gap in communication between board and district didn’t happen again.

At the end of the meeting, Kaumeyer urged parents who wanted to be kept informed of future board decisions to leave their e-mail addresses so she could start a mailing list that would include her Superintendent’s Reflections, a document that is available on the district’s Web site that summarizes every Board of Education meeting.

Visit ppcsd.org for more information on the reconfiguration plan, the 2009-10 budget process and other board news.

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