This was posted by Barbara Heins. It was written by Clare Kilgallen.
To the Editor:
New Lebanon School has an immediate need for $400,000 for a straightforward construction project to keep all our students at our school come August. Funds need to be made available immediately from the budget reserves. Our school is faced with a space shortage which will potentially lead to fifth grade classrooms moving to Western Middle School in the next school year. I am imploring Superintendent and Town to fund this small amount from the reserve; it will have a major impact on our school community. Let’s take this smart approach, not a Band-Aid one.
New Lebanon’s space issues are not a new problem that only arose this year, quite the contrary. The Superintendent’s office and the Town have known full well about the space crunch here for years. To portray the space issues as a one-year problem and a two classroom differential is dishonest. This is not a situation where New Lebanon School only needs two classrooms as a temporary fix for the 2013-14 school year. Four or five classrooms are needed for proper instruction. The facts – which the Superintendent’s office, the Board and the Town has known about for years – prove the fallacy of a one-year concern.
The class-size numbers – prior, current, and projected – show New Lebanon School’s tremendous growth. This school is already bursting at the seams. Here are the facts:
• Currently, we have collapsed sections in the same classroom – with four classes often going on in the same room concurrently. Sound issues are acute.
• Currently, closets are being used for instructional space. You read that right, closets. This is outrageous and unconscionable.
• Currently, the gymnasium stage is used for instructional space.
• Some special needs students have not been enrolled here at their local community school because New Lebanon doesn’t have the space to accommodate them.
• Our pre-school students are not on-site this year; they have been dispersed to other schools.
• There were 3 first grade classes last year that were consolidated into two this school year.
• The second grade classes are one or two students away from needing another class and that is projected to occur four 4 months from now.
• There are 3 first grade classes this year.
• There are 3 kindergarten classes this year and 3 kindergarten classes expected for 2013-14.
The Superintendent’s office and the Board have had knowledge of the enrollment and space issues for the past several years. Our PTA met with Dr. Lulow in October 2011 specifically about this issue. In addition, the reports needed to properly staff the school clearly show the numbers. No one can claim ignorance. The data is and has been all there for quite some time.
To his credit, Dr. McKersie met with the New Lebanon community in the Fall as well as May 1st and told us he would work with us. We spoke with him at length about the long-standing facility issues about how the physical plant is the cornerstone to this school community and has not had had a significant capital improvement in decades. The current Capital Improvement Plan doesn’t have any real money allocated to New Lebanon until 2021 ($1M) and even then it is not for capital improvement but only for maintenance upgrades.
Short-Term Solution: Per the Superintendent’s overview of options, a reasonable $400,000 to enclose the courtyard area for new administration space would enable two classrooms to be remodeled from the current administration space. This construction would and keep the 2013-14 fifth graders on-site where they belong and also enhance the overall security of the school by situating the offices by the entrance. $400,000 must be allocated from the budget reserves immediately to get this project moving.
Long Term: Change the budget for the next fiscal year to address New Lebanon’s on-going space problems. The budget the Superintendent submits in Fall 2013 must have money allocated to add a second floor addition of some size onto the school to address the long-standing and long-term needs. Building upwards creates no digging issues.
We have amazing teachers and staff who make our school a true community. We are proud of or accreditation as an International Baccalaureate Primary Year Program school.
New Lebanon is a magnet school. We can only attract students from throughout Greenwich by having the proper-size facility (and attracting such students will also help racial balance).
New Lebanon’s needs should be judged on its own merits and its needs should not be sacrificed to address other issues in the district. The projected overcrowding of six other Town elementary schools is in the future. New Lebanon’s need is here, now, and overdue.
The funds needed to properly address this situation are small and reasonable. It is money well spent and money that should have been spent years ago. The time is long overdue to invest in the Byram community. The taxpayers and voters of this community pay the same mill rate as any other part of Town and deserves the local infrastructure to educate our children here in Byram.
To the First Selectman, the BET and the RTM, please hear what we are saying. Byram has paid the taxes and deserves to have a school facility comparable to the other Town elementary schools. We are fighting to get what our children should have had years ago and must have now. By creating the proper physical space needed many things will be achieved, most important of which is giving our children the right learning environment.
$400,000 to enclose the front courtyard will alleviate the urgent need which comes in four months’ time. Allocate $400,000 from the reserves (or money from another budget) now to address this immediate need. Please fund this urgent project this month, our children deserve it.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Kilgallen
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