No Information About The Sale Is Forthcoming
by Thaddeus Flint
Possible plans for the sales of the Stephentown and Grafton Elementary school buildings were raised at the Berlin School Board meeting last Tuesday night, but details were not available about either plan.[private]
Residents who had previewed the Board’s agenda for the October 18 meeting might have noticed that “Sale of Stephentown Elementary Building” was listed as one of the consent agenda items. Those who wanted to know more on the subject might have gone to the District’s website to see if any further information was available on the BoardDocs section that provides background documents for meetings. That would have proved fruitless, as the only information to the public was one word, this being “Action.”
Residents might have then decided to attend the meeting to find out more. They didn’t—only around four people other than those who work for the District had come to the meeting—which was just as well because that trip would have also proved fruitless.
There is very little discussion anymore on consent agenda items or new business, or old business, or anything really, at the regular BCS Board meetings. The administrators do provide quite a bit of information about what’s going on in the District. But the Board itself doesn’t have much to say publicly. In the past, one would find (actually many would find, as meetings were often well attended) pretty much each and every possible talking point dissected and discussed, sometimes for hours on end. Admittedly, very little was being accomplished with all that discussion, but residents still had some idea as to what was happening and who on the Board thought what about whatever.
The end of all that discussion seemed to coincide with the parting of Gina Goodermote from the Board in 2015. Goodermote had strong opinions on many things and was never afraid to publicly state them.
Presumably the current Board members also have strong opinions, but if they do they are rarely shared publicly. There is no more clashing. How could there be? There is no more discussion. Everyone on the Board must now be in complete agreement, because pretty much any vote on pretty much anything is without any in-depth public discussion and voted on usually with all in favor. There might be private discussions, but the public misses out on such things, and maybe this is why they don’t come to Board meetings much anymore.
It is also entirely possible that residents are perfectly happy with the way things are going and don’t feel the need to attend meetings anymore, so filled with confidence they are now in the current Board of non-acrimonious Board members who have so little to discuss.
For whatever reason, the Board chose not to discuss publicly the possible sale of the Stephentown property, or even let anyone know what it was that they were agreeing to, when the vote was taken and the entire Board agreed to something on the public agenda listed as “Sale of Stephentown Elementary Building.”
The District’s Superintendent, Dr. Stephen Young, when contacted after the meeting, was more helpful on the subject. In BoardDocs he found the following: “RESOLVED: That upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools the Board of Education authorizes the entering into of the purchase and sale contract of the Stephentown Elementary building and the execution and delivery of the instruments of conveyance related thereto.”
It’s not all that much more, but it is positively wordy when compared to what the Board had to say on the matter, which was nothing.
“That is all the information that can be released at this time,” wrote Dr. Young in an Oct 20 email. “If and when a sale is finalized we can then provide you with additional information.”
Dr. Young also noted that “At the same time we are also still looking to sell the Grafton Elementary Building, but we have very little interest at this time.”
There is however, the interesting interest of Catherine O’Dell of Grafton. O’Dell was one of those four residents in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting.
O’Dell was trying to find out how much it would cost to purchase the Grafton property for use as a small assisted living area for some of the seniors of Grafton.
“We don’t want to be a burden on our children,” O’Dell, who is a senior herself, informed the Board. “It would be their home and they would never be lonesome.”
The same idea has also been discussed amongst Stephentown seniors, and in other communities who have found themselves still paying for empty schools lying lonesome in school districts that can’t get rid of them.
Board president Frank Zwack asked O’Dell if she had already done a feasibility study to determine whether or not such a project could work.
O’Dell replied no, but that she had looked into why similar projects didn’t work. One of the reasons, she was told, was the need for an expensive water system if the number of units was over four. So she had narrowed it down to four units.
“I’m really searching for a reason I shouldn’t do this,” O’Dell said. “But first, I need a price.”
According to Dr. Young, the price the District is currently asking for Grafton is $120,000. O’Dell didn’t appear to be fazed in the least at that number.
Zwack advised O’Dell to next go to Rensselaer County to put the plan together. Instead of looking for reasons not to go forward, “follow the reasons why to build,” said Zwack.
The Stephentown School has been closed since June 2009 and Grafton since June 2010.
A District parent, whose children don’t attend even those schools that are currently open, asked the Board about sending her home-schooled child to Tech Valley. What was the procedure?
There appeared to be no procedure for skipping BCS all those years and then going straight to Tech Valley. Dr. Young said usually the student is referred by the District, but in this case, the District doesn’t know the student enough to recommend them. He advised attending a BCS school for at least two years. And possibly all years. “We offer a better program than Tech Valley,” he said.
Zwack asked that the parent meet with High School/Middle School Principal Dr. Cathy Allain as a “first step.”
The night began with the Middle School Student Council thanking each member of the School Board for their donated time in service to the District. The number of years went up, for the most recent, Sherry Bowman-Kluck, to the longest serving, Frank Zwack, who now has sat on the BCS Board for thirty-two years.
Each Board member was gifted a t-shirt and a hand shake. On the back of each shirt was the High School/Middle School’s theme: “We are all in this together.”[/private]