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GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Greenburgh Central 7 Board of Education has one goal for the district this year — movement, both physically and academically.
In a special Board of Education meeting, board members and Superintendent Ron Ross met with representatives of the Educational Legacy Planning group, a professional organization that manages the planning and design of school facilities, and unveiled a goal: to consolidate Greenburgh's six schools into new facilities.
"We're the diamond that nobody seems to know about," board member Claudia Laser said about the Greenburgh Central 7 school district. "A consolidation will do many things. We have great things going on right now, but it's covered by the physical things people see."
Board members listened to ELP Executive Director Robert Hendricks, who told them that consolidating the district into fewer buildings would help the district not just financially. Students' test scores are higher in districts with fewer buildings than in districts where students must move through different buildings, according to recent studies.
With consolidation still in the planning stage, the board members must decide how they want to consolidate the schools, whether it be kindergarten-eighth grade with no junior high school, or K-sixth grade and keeping a junior high school.
"We have to understand where we want to go," Hendricks said. "You have to get the community's input not when the process is complete, but before the process begins."
Most of the board members echoed that Greenburgh Central gets misrepresented by its outdated buildings — Laser added that some parents are "scared" to go inside R.J. Bailey School. Board President Lloyd Newland said too much money goes into fixing and maintaining all the buildings, and consolidating into fewer buildings could help to lower the high taxes that currently result from Greenburgh Central's six schools.
Amy Huang, a parent with two children in the district who told the board at its last meeting that it needed to put together a goal for the year, said she likes the idea of consolidating schools. However, she was disappointed that she and other community members didn't get to add input.
"Do I feel like they communicated with us? No. But the plan could be exciting, and I'm all for consolidating schools," Huang said.
Newland said the board will create an educational forum in the coming weeks to hear the community and see what people say about partnering with ELP.
"We want to hear what the community has to offer," he said. "It's another one of our mission goals — gaining back the confidence of the community."
Comments (10)
The statistics on Greenburgh Central 7 schools-
# of students attending: ~1,700
# of schools PK - grade 12 >>> 6 (!!!)
structure of the schools:
a) ECP - grade prekindergarten (PK)
b) Lee F. Jackson- grades K & 1
c) Highview- grades 2 & 3
d) R.J. Bailey- grades 4,5 & 6
e) Woodlands Middle School- grades 7 & 8
f) Woodlands High School- grades 9-12
Bravo to GC7 BOE for holding a meeting to discuss a goal for the school district. There were 6 members there (1 absent!) to share with the audience their vision of restructuring. Having attended the meeting I learned alot from the talk by ELP executive Robert Hendricks.
In my opionion, as a parent of young children currently in the school district, going through 4 schools from PK to grade 6 is detrimental to our children. Too many schools to "readjust to", it's also hard for the parents. The current structure of our school is the reminent of desegregation, as the presentator so eloquently pointed out. As a taxpayer, is it smarter to maintain 6 aging buildings??? Or is it time to think about renovation that can save money?? This will be the fourth attempt to restructure in our district, which should be an indicator that it is a needed change!
What else should the GC7 BOE set as a goal? Academic improvements in tangible numbers that can been seen on NYSED report cards (grades 3-8 ELA and Math tests, High School regents tests) and SAT scores. Yes, these numbers come from tests. These numbers are important in that they are accessible to all, to new incoming parents, to current parents wondering what's going on in the next school their child is going to, public perception of our school district. GC7 test scores can be improved and should be improved.
I don't know why Scarsdale keeps getting into our discussions at Greenburgh. Greenburgh is unique and will never ever be like Scarsdale (thank goodness). I am here for improving Greenburgh schools. Other districts are mentioned so that we know what is happening around us, maybe we can also look at Ardsley, Eastchester and Dobbs Ferry.
Consolidation is the spin word for the times... it tricks people into thinking that by making something centralized it will be cheaper. There is a cost to running a facility, there is no doubt about it, however Greenburgh's facilities are built and paid off. If property maintance and oversight of the buildings is done correctly they will prove to be a valuable assest to the District for the next few decades and the cost of operation will be negligable compared to the cost of the debt to finance this proposed new construction.
A new building is not a plan to improve the quality of the education for the students, point blank. Progressive administrators in troubled schools in New York City, Ann Hutchenson Elementary in Mount Vernon and countless other areas where this proposal would be laughed at, still turned their school around depsite the bricks and motar, walls and floors.
The cost of education in Elmsford and Greenburgh is not sustainable, to even propose increasing the cost to the people that support the District is not just immoral it should be illegal.
Good luck Greenburgh taxpayers,... we share your struggle in Elmsford!
@LetsbReal - YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. In spite of the spin the new Supt is presenting, this absolutely has nothing to do with education. This is all about somone trying to make a name for himself after failing in 2 districts before coming to Greenburgh #7. The district has a good bond rating because we have paid off loans that were taken to pay for the mess caused by falling for a "too good to be true" deal to have the football field rebuilt. So the Supt's plan is to take on additional debt? Unbelievable isn't it? To garner support he has already convinced the Board to hire 4 administrators from the 2 disctricts that sanctioned him & kicked him out (Mt. Vernon & Roosevelt). At his bidding, they've already had a secret meeting to hire a company to convince the taxpayers this is viable. He's going to have a new school built that will be nationally renowned? Give me strength. you're right - it's immoral & should be illegal.
Just don't take those math lessons in the Greenburgh schools.
Appears that much needs to be done by the Board and the community before they allow the new Supt to proceed much more. In his "speech" at the last Board meeting, the Supt & some Board members attempted to blame the low test scores on the fact that we have 3 elementary schools, 1 middle school & 1 high school. This was the same justification for building a new school to combine all the schools K-8 - LET'S LOOK AT DATA FROM 2 SCHOOLS THAT GC7 WISHES THEY COULD COMPETE WITH:
Scarsdale - 4,700 students K-12, 5 elementary, 1 MS and 1 HS - combined SAT scores: 1935 COST? $26,742 per student.
Chappaqua - 4,700 students K-12 - 3 elementary, 2 MS and 1 HS - combined SAT scores:1904 COST? $26,742
GC7 - 1,100 students K-12 - 3 elementary, 1 MS and 1 HS - combined SAT scores: 1382 COST? $56,780
SO, I ASK SOMEONE TO JUSTIFY THE PROPOSED NEW SCHOOL WHICH IS BEING FED TO US WHEN WE PAY MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH PER STUDENT AS THOSE DISTRICTS WHICH ARE CLEARLY MORE SUCCESSFUL?
Dear fite4kids:
Your stats for GC7 are incorrect, unless you have some inside source that I don't know about...
Please check the stats for GC7 at link below:
https://reportcards.nysed.gov/schools.php?district=800000035507&year=2011
2010-2011- # of students attending = 1630
2009-2010 school year cost/student = $33,666 for general education (other districts average $25-$30K per, our additional cost per student comes from the 2 million dollars cost to provided busing for the almost 700 kids going out of district)
In addition, GC7 spends about $50K per special ed student, which is on par with other districts, I believe Ardsley and Eastchester spend more at about $55K per special education student.
Dear fite4kids:
Your stats for GC7 are incorrect, unless you have some inside source that I don't know about...
Please check the stats for GC7 at link below:
https://reportcards.nysed.gov/schools.php?district=800000035507&year=2011
2010-2011- # of students attending = 1630
2009-2010 school year cost/student = $33,666 for general education (other districts average $25-$30K per, our additional cost per student comes from the 2 million dollars cost to provided busing for the almost 700 kids going out of district)
In addition, GC7 spends about $50K per special ed student, which is on par with other districts, I believe Ardsley and Eastchester spend more at about $55K per special education student.
AMEN
Let's analyze how consolidating the buildings will help us financially. Yes, we will not have to pay as much $$ for running of the schools, but we will still have to put out $$ to heat and maintain the buildings so we can sell them! In addition, we will have to assume approximately $75 million dollars in debt to build a building to house students K-8. As we discovered before, we will have to reroute busing and probably have to upgrade the Woodlands football field to allow for easy access for fire trucks. More $$. So we take on additional debt while we wait to sell the 2 elementary buildings? I see rising taxes in our future. Then we must consider the human capital. How will we eliminate the administrator and teacher positions? Using seniority will cost our talented new administrators at the MS and HS as the other tenured admins juggle for a job. The same holds true for teachers. How will our children be taught as our teachers are distracted? So we are hiring a new firm - at what cost? What else will be done in secret? Very depressing. Can't you hear the taxes rising? Too bad our test scores won't - oh, but the low scores will be blamed on multiple schools...doesn't Scarsdale have multiple elementary schools, a middle school & a high school? I wonder what their secret is....could be they have a better central administration that concentrates on the students, not their own personal agenda.
I agree fite4kids. Just where is this money coming from? Mr. Ross stated he hasn't spent any money for these new administrators positions - he said that 6 teachers retired, savings $511K. They were replaced with less experienced, lower salaried teachers. OK, using his math, replacing a $100K teacher with a $65K teacher saves $$35K x6 = $210K savings. He's increased administrators by at least 3 (1 new AP at Woodlands HS, 2 central office administrators). One central admin is making $157K, the other $137K and the new AP is making $120, which equals $414K. Subtracting the $210K savings and what do we get? Overage of $204K. Can anyone explain just how is that saving us any money?????? Mr. Ross needs to take some math lessons.