WE HAVE ROOM FOR 2500 STUDENTS, WE HAVE 960. WHY IS THE MERGER
CROWD PLANNING MORE NEW BUILDINGS?
The school board spent a lot of taxpayer money to distribute
misinformation to the public before the 2001-building vote. As they sent out half a dozen
campaign brochures, I do not have space to address it all, so couple of extracts from the
first paragraph the May 2001 brochure must suffice.
The school board tried to mislead the public to believe that we have a
space shortage. They wrote" Although our student population has steadied over the
years…" blah…blah.
The truth is that 2000 census shoved that we had a very dramatic
drop in the student population over the 10 years. The potential student
population was down 17.6%.
In the next sentence the board wrote," Our buildings,
however are straining to meet the instructional needs of today’s students and
staff." An inventory of the space in the district showed that the school was renting
out classrooms for business use. Even after the rented space we had over 10 classrooms
without any students in them. The board also did not mention that we had in 2001 only 1200
students in a space, which according to the strict New York space standards could house
2000. The board also did not mention that Superintendent Bailey had told them in the Nov.
23, 1999 meeting that the school district could house 2000 students in the existing
buildings. The new buildings were a waste of our money. They cost about $30
million and are half paid for in 2013 and the waste will impoverish our community to 2024.
The free fall in student population has continued so now in 2013 we have 960 students in
buildings that could house 2500. Further proof of the disconnect of reality among the
merger crowd is the proposals for building even more space! In the S-VE buildings we
already have space to house the addition of every Candor student.
