RSS 2.0 FeedSeptember 22, 2011, Bellmore Life
North Bellmore School District faces school closure
Give backs may save a school from being closed.
POWERFUL COMMITTEE: The 22-member Committee to Explore Educational Options (CEEO), composed of teachers, administrators, custodians, lunch room attendents, civics group officers and more, must find savings in the school budget. Bellmore Life photo by Douglas Finlay
The North Bellmore School District finds itself between a rock and a hard place because an independent study recommends closing at least one school to save mounting costs.
During the inaugural meeting last week of a 22-member committee developed to ferret out cost savings of a projected $1.8-$2.3 million shortfall for the 2012-13 school year, a school consultant presented three options that would save as much as $1.5 million in staffing and operating costs – but all options involve closing one school.
The report, written by Dr. Charles Fowler of School Leadership LLC, looked at projected student capacities into the year 2015. This showed that Jacob Gunther School would be at only 50% capacity into that year, raising concerns among some residents that Gunther could be closed.
The report also identified Park Avenue as having the highest enrollment compared to capacity into 2015, at 95%, with Newbridge Road, 82%, Martin Avenue, 77%, Saw Mill Road, 60% and Dinkelmeyer, 59%, rounding out the schools.
Premature to say
Arnold Goldstein, superintendent of schools, told this newspaper it is premature to draw conclusions that any schools will be closed. Mr. Goldstein said that “the committee was formed as a proactive measure to look at all available avenues of revenue that may be open to the district, to make up the anticipated loss of revenue from reductions in state aid, the new 2% tax cap and the new county sewer tax expenditure,” among many.
“The earlier we address this, the better off we’ll be,” he said.
As the night wore on for the spillover crowd of well over 100 in the Saw Mill Road School general purpose room, it became apparent that Gunther could be the school to close.
When one committee member finally asked the question of what school could be closed, a loud whisper from an unidentified person mentioned Gunther.
Indeed, when audience members were given an opportunity to speak, one exasperated resident identified only as Amy implored the school board to find ways to keep Gunther school open.
Lorraine Darcy asked if reduced property values would follow the Gunther School being closed. Toni Cincotta, the district’s superintendent for business, told the audience that when Martin Avenue was closed in 1980 there was no record of property values diminishing around the school. That school was closed due to declining student population, and students instead went to Newbridge Road, Gunther and Saw Mill Road.
Dave Checkla, a board member representing the North Bellmore Civic Association, told this newspaper after the meeting that using Martin Avenue’s closing in 1980 as a guide to 2011 property valuations would be an inaccurate method of comparison.
At one point, Mr. Goldstein underscored the seriousness with which he and the new committee take the responsibilities to keep all six schools open.
“We are in a people-oriented business,” he said, “not the profit business. But we also know that while people drive the costs it is those very people, the custodians, lunchroom staff, administrators and certainly the teachers that account for the quality of education and instruction” that is so vital to the schools’ – and the students’ – success.
Mrs. Cincotta added that, if there were to be any impact on closing one school, it might be on the quality of instruction because teachers and other staff would have to be laid off.
“No matter what we do,” Mr. Goldstein said, “whether it’s closing a school or increasing class sizes, we cannot do nothing at this point.”
Another resident identified as Mary struck a chord among many in the audience when she asserted that “there is enormous administrative overhead” in the district. “There are more assistant superintendents here than anywhere else,” she charged.
Options
Among the options proposed by Dr. Fowler include keeping five of the six schools open, all teaching K-6, with a savings of $1,033,435; or, five schools open, with two schools teaching K-2, and three schools teaching 3-6, for a savings of $1,436,719; or, five schools open, with two teaching K-2, two teaching 3-5 and one teaching sixth grade, for a savings of $1,553,568.
Of the last two options, Dr. Fowler said they are part of the Princeton Plan, in which there is a change in grade patterns. When asked by a board member the effectiveness of changing grade patterns, Dr. Fowler explained that greater alignment with state and national standards could be met; that there would be greater program coordination and staff development; and there would be greater effectiveness in schools scheduling special teachers.
However, Angela Bennett, a committee member from Park Avenue who lives in Merrick and has studied Merrick’s elementary school districts, said those school districts and North Bellmore’s are statistically the same in grade achievements, and the only reason for the Princeton Plan would be to save money.
Even with the closure of one school, at a savings of $1.5 million, another member of the audience asked where the rest of the savings would come from to meet the roughly $2 million in reductions.
While Mr. Goldstein said the district would then look to achieve other savings to meet the required cuts, at least two committee members, who requested anonymity, said if the teacher’s union skipped its step increases – those attributable to years of service and time spent as a teacher – that could save close to $1 million.
If the unions gave back more, perhaps a school could be saved from being shuttered, the committee member told this newspaper.
Another member of the audience, who requested anonymity, told this newspaper that the school to be closed could become a school for special education children that could be funded entirely by the federal government, with no cost to taxpayers.
But Dr. Fowler said after the meeting that the federal government would not pay for special education classes.
Mr. Goldstein also said that, if a school building were to be closed, it would not likely be rented by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) for its specialized classes, because “We learned they are not looking for any property at this time.”
The next meeting of the CEEO Committee will be on Thursday, October 6, at Saw Mill Road School at 7 p.m. Other meetings will be Thursday, October 27; Wednesday, November 16; Monday, December 5; and Thursday, December 15; all at 7 p.m.
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Friday, October 07, 2011 Thomas
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SAVE OUR SCHOOL - JACOB GUNTHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Diane
