Letter To The Editor – The Freight Train Rolls On

To The Editor,
It is with great concern that I have followed the events unfolding within our School District in the last five years. I was greatly disturbed when our former school superintendent and former business manager first unveiled their plans to close Grafton and Stephentown Elementary Schools as part of an attempt to save money, as well as perform much needed repairs and updates at our other two District schools. I have been ever increasingly disturbed at the lengths our former superintendent and present Interim Superintendent, as well as some past and present members our School Board, have gone to in order to fulfill these plans. As I recall there were a few alternative plans set forth by our long-range planning committees, some of them very realistic and efficient in my opinion. Alas, they were shot down by the administration and some School Board members who had already made up their minds to follow their own agenda as previously set forth; close two schools and work on the remaining two. They managed to get Stephentown Elementary School closed. Now the Interim Superintendent, in a letter submitted to The Eastwick Press, states that during the upcoming five-year period, while using four modular units plunked down on the front lawn of our beautiful old building in Berlin at a cost, according to my calculations, of $529,560, the Board expects to develop with the community a plan for the District’s future (The Eastwick Press, April 16, 2010, page 5) This is of course after voting at a budget workshop to close Grafton Elementary this June. Well, if the past five years are any indication, the working with the community part is just an empty promise aimed at getting Grafton closed right now. If our Superintendent and the majority of our School Board had any interest in “developing with the community” a plan for the District’s future, as opposed to furthering their own agenda, it would have been accomplished before this. Those who have worked tirelessly to see our money spent more wisely, while including each town in the District to the best advantage, have been bullied and outvoted at every turn.
Despite the resistance and repeated efforts of many taxpayers in the District to derail it, this freight train rolls on…
The initial reason that was given for closing both Stephentown and Grafton Elementary schools was declining enrollment. While this may be what we were told at the time, and what may have been true in Stephentown, this doesn’t bear out in Grafton from what I’ve seen. Both our evidently increasing growth in Grafton and the statistics and projections given on the website for the Capital District Regional Planning Commission (www.cdrpc.org) say otherwise. Rather than take my word, I strongly urge you to check out this website for yourself, you will be AMAZED at what you find there.
Mrs. Gregory also said herself, at the Board of Education Meeting held on April 27, during her Superintendent’s report, that the entire Capital Region is expected to grow in the near future due to the influx of opportunities for nano-technology here.
When Grafton Elementary opened in 1960 (I entered second grade there) it contained grades k-6. By the way, the construction of that school was the result of an earlier vote in 1956 by Grafton taxpayers to join with the Berlin Central School District rather than Brittonkill, being promised at the time that we would always have a school in Grafton. So much for promises…
Grafton Elementary School has not been used to full capacity in the past few years. Is this a concerted effort to make it look like the enrollment is declining and we don’t have enough students to fill it? I don’t think that was the original intent…back in the 80s and 90s, students in grades 4-6 were moved from Grafton Elementary and two modular classrooms were added in Berlin due to overcrowding. During the 80s my sons attended there. My two older grandchildren attended there. Funny thing…now that we have had supposedly declining enrollment, those two old modulars are still there and being used, although not as regular classrooms. We also have two original classrooms not being used as regular classrooms right now, (one is the nurse’s office, for heaven’s sake) and one being used as an additional third grade, but we only have grades k-3 in the building!
Perhaps if we used the Grafton Elementary building as was originally intended, with grade k-5 or even k-6 students from Grafton and Petersburgh enrolled there, it would be properly utilized and not appear to be wasted space. It would be a reasonably sized and reasonably well maintained school and an asset to the District.
So if we’re going to spend well over $500,000, why not spend it on a permanent building already in decent shape rather than modulars at the “money pit”? (My own terminology, no one else’s) Don’t get me wrong, when I call Berlin Elementary a money pit, it doesn’t mean we should close it down instead of Grafton. It means, rather, that we need to be very aware of it’s age and maintenance needs and safety issues when we discuss cramming every elementary student in the District into it, while at the same time trying to fix it up, with our children inside.
While we’re at it, we need to be just as aware of the issues surrounding the placement of 4 modular buildings on the front lawn and using them (with a portable septic tank, are you kidding me?) for pre-k and kindergarten for at least five years. Where are these little ones going to attend library, art and music classes? Where are they going to eat lunch? Where are they going to have gym class? Will they need to “gear up” and be escorted across the lawn to the bigger school a few times a day in all kinds of weather? It’s just plain wrong for any of the District’s children to be exposed to that, let alone all of them! And, what will we do with the modulars at the end of the five years?
I’m begging the taxpayers and voters in our District to take the time and effort to investigate all this for yourselves before the May 18th vote. Ask questions, be involved, make the trip to the polling place and vote accordingly. Take back our children’s future!
Respectfully,
Mrs. Shelly Bedford
181 Steve O’Dell Road Cropseyville