by Thaddeus Flint
As 2013 came to a close, the Berlin Central School District Board of Education, at its last monthly meeting of the year on December 17, began to look forward at possible new projects, including the replacement of the District’s bus garage.
[private]“We do need a long range plan for facilities,” said District Superintendent Dr. Stephen Young. He described the current bus garage as being in “deplorable condition.” Something certainly needs to be done. “There are some serious problems associated with that building,” said Young.
Building a new bus garage would come at no small cost though. While figures were not discussed, the price tag could be rather large due to the difficulty in getting aid on construction of a facility that does not serve an educational purpose directly.
Board Member Gina Goodermote said, “We should look outside the box.” Instead of just building a new garage at the current location, maybe there were other options. She also brought up the possibility of moving the District’s maintenance facility, currently located in garage-type spaces at the Elementary school, to some other location.
“I have no problem putting the maintenance facility at Berlin Lumber [the Town of Berlin Municipal Complex], which is in the middle of the District,” said Goodermote. Not that she was actively advocating any solution just yet. The important part was to start thinking a plan through now so it can be studied further come budget time.
“Let’s just gather some information so it’s not a shock for the public,” Goodermote advocated. “Let’s make sure the people are aware of it.” That way, come budget time, “you don’t have people yelling at you from the audience,” she added.
Depending on how much a new garage will increase residents’ school taxes, people yelling from the audience could still happen, but at least they would be informed of what they were yelling about, which in itself is already a step in the right direction.
Board Member Jim Willis wondered if there were not some way to make the building aid worthy, at least from the State Education Department’s point of view. “Could we not incorporate a classroom into the building and possibly offer mechanics?” he asked.
The District’s Interim Business Manager, Chuck Snyder, pointed out that a construction project could in fact become quite a bit more expensive if a structure was going to be deemed as a facility for students. And while aid would then be theoretically possible, “You will fall under the eyes of the State Education Department,” said Snyder.
Board President Frank Zwack felt that perhaps a pre-fabricated sort of garage might be the most cost effective route to take. “We need a simple building there,” he said. “Not one too complex and too costly for the taxpayer.”
Snyder said he would look into the best solution to funding the garage project.
Making Facilities More Available
Another project the Board discussed for the future was making the current facilities more available to the residents.
Goodermote said she wanted to know what the public would possibly like to use the facilities for. At the moment they are used by such outside programs as Taconic Valley Youth Basketball. But there could also be other possibilities. For example, there is a well furnished exercise room at the High School/Middle School. But “some people don’t even know we have it,” pointed out Goodermote. Certainly they should since they paid for it, but interest in it by the public has not been abundant so far.
Young advised having an informational meeting on a Saturday, inviting the public to come, look at facilities and discuss further public uses. “I think there is great opportunity there, we just have to map it out,” he said.
Willis felt that offering more than one single use at a time would make it additionally worthwhile for families to make the trek to the school. “We are a long District,” he pointed out.
It was decided that the District will explore further how to get the input of the residents it serves. Young felt it was important to do so before budget season gets fully under way. “If there is an interest, we would have to think about how it would impact the budget,” he said.
TRACS
The night was started off with a presentation by several members of TRACS (Together Reducing Alcohol & Drugs in our CommunitieS). TRACS has been on the road lately making one presentation after another in an effort to join the Berlin School District with New Lebanon’s, so together the two Districts can fight the use of alcohol and drugs by students. TRACS is also attempting to get a grant to fund their activities, as their original funding from Rensselaer County has ended. The amount they are seeking, $2.5 million over 10 years, might seem like a large amount for two rather small communities, however, when compared to the total sum spent in 2013 by the U.S. in its War on Drugs – over $40 billion in state and federal tax dollars – that $250,000 a year is merely a drop in the bucket.
TRACS and Youth2Youth understand what anyone who has taken Economics 101 should understand – you need to stop demand in order to stop supply. And Youth2Youth is trying to do just that by showing kids that life can be fun without alcohol and drugs. But Youth2Youth also grasps something other programs haven’t – the kids need to bring the message to other kids.
So far it is not known if the New Lebanon District will come on board with BCS TRACS, but Young said he would try. “I’d be happy to talk to [New Lebanon District Superintendent] Karen McGraw,” he said.
“They’ve got passion,” said Zwack of the TRACS members. “That’s the ingredients for success.”[/private]