The Board of Education discussed and eventually voted to keep New Lebanon School students in their current building while construction takes place on a new school building adjacent to the existing one.
The BOE’s special meeting, held at the Havemeyer Building on Tuesday night, started off with welcoming interim Superintendent Dr. Sal Corda to the meeting table and hearing out his recommendation to keep the elementary school children in their current building.
“We believe there is more of an advantage for the students to remain in the building,” said Corda. “It is a building that they know and a building that they are comfortable with. It is a building that will provide them with a sense and a backdrop of security as they see all of the disturbance, if you will, that is taking place outside as the new building is constructed.”
After attending the last two New Lebanon Building Committee (NLBC) meetings and having discussions with Barbara Riccio, principal of New Lebanon School, and Jim Hricay, director of operations for Greenwich Public Schools, the interim superintendent said that modular classrooms “create a sense of disconnect.”
A board vote of 7-1 ratified the NLBC’s recommendation to have students remain in their building during construction, with the only protest coming from board member Peter Sherr, who was joined in the meeting via teleconference.
Construction is set to begin July 1, 2017, and the new building is slated for occupation in August or September of 2018.
Details of the project, including site security, fencing the construction site off, and the proposed school’s proximity to I-95 (41 feet at its closest point) were discussed by the board, and questions were answered by the NLBC chairman Steve Walko.
The timing of the meeting and the decision—outside of the school year—was questioned by a few board members.
“We’re in a push-pull situation,” said Walko. “On one hand, we’re being pulled to want the school open in September of 2018, but on the other hand, we heard loud and clear from the RTM not to commit money before June of 2017, which is when the state General Assembly approves it.”
The dissenting vote from Sherr was voiced over speakerphone; he placed particular importance on whether parents should be forced to send their kids to school while the neighboring building was under construction.
“Everybody knows that in our town that if you want to get something done, sometimes it’s easier to do in the dark of August,” said Sherr. “I would not be comfortable making this decision without any opportunity for public comment, which this meeting doesn’t have.”
Sherr said parents might feel the school is unsafe or the education experience hindered with the ongoing construction.
“I’m uncomfortable with creating a situation like this,” said Sherr.
Board member Peter Bernstein rebutted Sherr’s concerns by citing nearby construction at the Byram Shubert Library that interrupted Church Street, a dividing road that the library and the elementary school share.
“They already lived with that,” said Bernstein. “In addition to that, we do have a magnet program, and if parents want a magnet out of that school or any other school, they can take advantage of the application process, and if they get in they can make their choice. We also have 27 percent of our population in a private school in town.”
Bernstein accused Sherr of contributing “bluster” to the conversation.
“I’m not looking for any reasons to delay or undermine this project,” said Bernstein. “We can’t seem to get to the heart of the conversation, which is whether we are comfortable with the kids remaining in the building.”
The vice chair of the board, Barbara O’Neill, cited a curriculum used by building organizations and schools that takes into consideration the construction going on around students.
“As an educator, I look at this as a great opportunity,” said O’Neill. “We talk about STEM, they will have STEM going on for a year around them. They will have plenty of opportunities to learn from it.”
Although the construction zone and the existing school will be fenced off from each other, O’Neill says it is a teachable moment for the elementary school students.
“Let’s not just make this about looking at a building going up,” said O’Neill. “I think the learning experience could be pretty exciting.”
