OTSELIC – Voters in Otselic Valley will go to the polls tomorrow to decide on a $22.6 million capital improvement project.
The Otselic Valley Board of Education has proposed a building project that would combine the school’s elementary and high school campuses. Currently, the district is split, with students in kindergarten through sixth grade attending school in the Georgetown Elementary School and students in seventh through 12th grade in the South Otselic High School.
The project is being proposed as the result of a State Education Department Building Condition Survey that shed light on several physical issues in the schools which required service, upgrading or replacement.
A Facilities Planning Committee was formed. The committee examined three different options; renovating both the elementary and high school buildings, merging the school with another district or creating a combined campus. They recommended the combined campus option, citing potential cost savings as a reason.
District Superintendent Larry Thomas said the project is important on two levels. “The board feels this will ultimately improve the overall program, kindergarten through 12th, for students in the district,” he said. In addition, the superintendent cited a significant cost savings to district taxpayers. Thomas has said the project could save up to $1.1 million a year, through personnel, energy and transportation costs.
The proposed building project calls for renovations and additions to be made to the South Otselic building to create a combined K-12 campus and the addition of a new bus maintenance facility. The plans call for the addition of 21 new classrooms, six new bathrooms, a second gymnasium, a new playground and the new bus garage. In addition, several other parts of the campus will be renovated, upgraded or realigned to accommodate the proposed plan.
In order to ensure that the elementary and high school students remain separate, the cafeteria, health office and library will all contain separate areas for elementary and high school students. Thomas said it has been a priority to keep the youngest kids separate from the older kids where appropriate and possible.
“The best thing about this combined campus plan is that we can bring the two groups together in a positive way at times when we decide we want to do that, but it still allows us to have both separate at other times,” he said.
The district has cited several possible benefits to the combined campus plan, including an additional hour of instructional time for elementary students each day; the increased likelihood of a school based health clinic; increased staff communication; better curriculum coordination; and increased security. In addition, staff members who currently alternate between the elementary and high school buildings will be available to all of the students on all days.
The board has presented the proposed plan on 17 occasions. During public meetings, some community members have voiced concerns over the fate of the current elementary school building. Until the 1970s, the Georgetown and South Otselic Schools were separate districts, and some do not want to see the building closed. While a potential cost savings has been mentioned, some residents have pointed out that until the school disposes of the building, they would still have to deal with the costs of maintaining both sites.
The district is working with representatives from the Greenwood Corporation, who have said the building could be sold or leased, however, they noted that the sale of the building would most likely be a lengthy process due to the size of the building and the property. The Greenwood representative pointed toward many area schools that have been sold and converted to retirement homes or assisted living facilities.
The total cost of the combined campus will be approximately $19.3 million, with an additional $3.3 million for the new bus garage. The project will be funded through a combination of state aid, the district’s capital reserves and the local share. The bus facility will be aided at 100 percent. The remainder of the project will be aided at 98 percent. While the state government has been cutting funding to school districts recently, Thomas said none of the cuts that have come through have touched capital projects. “I’m confident if the project goes through, we will be funded,” he said.
From noon to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, voters in the Otselic Valley School District will be asked to vote on the project. Voters on the Madison County side of the district must vote at the Georgetown Elementary School, while residents on the Chenango County side of the district must vote at the Junior/Senior High School in South Otselic.