After the decision, among the first orders of business was for the Facilities Committee to review the timeline established by Superintendent Maria Rice. “The timeline is there to help us set goals. It is an aggressive timeline that was developed to keep us focused and moving forward,” says Board of Education president and Facilities Committee chairman Rod Dressel. Although the proposed timeline is going to be challenging to meet, the Board has embraced it to guide them through the huge process ahead of them and will do its best to stay on track, although Mr. Dressel warns that decisions will not be made hastily just to meet the proposed deadlines.

          The Facilities Committee is currently in the process of drafting a Request for Proposal (RPF) to engage the necessary services of professionals to develop specific details and cost estimates for renovating the Middle School into a 21st Century Learning facility.

          When the RFP is finalized and professional services are secured, the District will then have access to the information needed to move forward with making some larger decisions. “All decisions will be made in public. We will continue to keep the community involved in the process and seek its input,” adds Mr. Dressel.

Responding to the voice of the community, the Board of Education voted unanimously in favor of developing a facilities plan for addressing the Middle School needs through renovation, not by construction on a new site. Deciding between renovation and new construction was a decision the Board did not want to make without first hearing from the community about what it feels are the most important factors on which to base a decision.

Two months of intensive community outreach was conducted that included public input forums at each of the District schools, an interactive Blog on the District website that generated nearly 100 comments, a voicemail hotline, and tours of the Middle School building.

At a special Board of Education meeting on January 30, held exclusively to finalize a decision on the Middle School, there were more than four hours of presentation, discussion, and passionate community input, where residents frequently broke into applause after hearing testimony in support of keeping the Middle School at its current location. A petition with over 800 signatures in support of a middle school renovation was also presented to the Board signed by district residents from all of the towns that comprise the New Paltz Central School District.

“I think we have a moral obligation to consider what impact our decision makes on the entire community,” said Board of Education Vice President David Dukler, prior to the unanimous vote.

Passing the resolution means the Board will move ahead to flesh out the specifics of a plan to renovate and reconstruct portions of the Middle School using the latest “green” and energy-efficient technologies. The Board will engage professional architectural, engineering, and surveying firms to provide detailed plans and costs that will be shared with the community as the discussion moves forward.

With community backing, this is a firm step to keep the Middle School located in the village, but the Board remains open-minded as they continue on their fact-finding process. Board President Rod Dressel wants to be certain that the Board has all of the information needed to make a decision before any concrete plans are put in place. To get that information, however, the District needs to make an investment of both human and financial resources. The Board’s vote enables the District to take this important step forward.

“Making a decision tonight does not mean our feet are cast in stone. It means we are going to dedicate some serious resources to looking at our options,” explained Board of Education member Don Kerr at the meeting.

The Board thanks the nearly 100 people who attended the meeting and offered their input, as well as those who provided feedback through the blog, voicemail, emails, letters, and other meetings.

The Community’s Voice: What the Board Heard

• Keeping the Middle School in the village encourages students to walk and bike. This enables students to develop healthy lifestyle habits and is environmentally-conscious because it decreases dependence on fossil fuels.
• The ability to walk into the Village after school hours is a “rite of passage” that helps students become integral members of the New Paltz community and affords them independence at an important stage in their young lives.
• The structural integrity and careful workmanship of older buildings like the Middle School provides a sound base for renovations that is preferable to modern design and construction (which may not be built with such care).
• The historical value of the Middle School, which was originally erected in the 1930s and served as the District’s K-12 educational facility, is an important factor.
• Combining a wide range of ages, with students from age 11 – 18 sharing a campus, could have an impact on young student’s socialization that everyone was not comfortable with.
• Renovating the current building is a more efficient use of District resources than building new.

The Board’s decision to dedicate the resources, both human and financial, to exploring the Middle School renovation gives the District a direction to take, which was the goal. Now, the District can begin gathering detailed information and realistic costs, as well as to start to seek answers to the many questions everyone has.

More information will be added to the site detailing the meeting and decision shortly.

In addition to the Community Forum, presentations are planned for the following PTA meetings:

• January 14 at 7 PM at the High School
• January 15 at 7 PM at Duzine Elementary School

Please join us for these discussions. Additional activities and opportunities for community input will be posted as they are planned.

Over the next few months, the Board and Superintendent Maria Rice will reach out to the community for this input. In addition to this Blog, community forums, paper and online information and interactive surveys, community presentations, and tours are planned.

You are invited to contribute to this Blog as a means to offer the Board information, guidance, opinions and questions on the future of the Middle School Building.  We also ask you to consider and offer your perspectives on the following question:  Will the current Middle School continue to be used as a learning center for students of the 21^st Century?

This is the thinking stage, and the purpose of reaching out NOW is to hear about what matters to you and understand the priorities you have in making the decision.  Asking this question will certainly generate numerous questions about the specifics of a yes or no answer, but the Board is not yet at a stage where answers are available.

Once the Board decides whether to move forward with a renovation project or with new construction, a comprehensive examination of all issues (especially cost) will be undertaken. It is at this point that the specific questions people will surely have about such things as where students will attend school or how school meals can be prepared if the Middle School building is unoccupied during renovations or how many classrooms a new building would have, can be answered.

For now, the Board wants to hear what matters to you.  The Board will ultimately be responsible for making this decision and taking it to the voters.   What would you like them to base their decision on? The information that we currently do have available is provided within this Blog, which was created to facilitate a dialog between the School District and the Community.

 To begin our discussion, we would like feedback on what the community thinks are the most important factors for the Board of Education to consider when making this decision.

Each post will be on a specific topic so all comments should relate to the posted topic. Comments will be reviewed for appropriateness before appearing on the blog and only comments that are relevant to the topic will be posted. Every effort will be made for posts to be reviewed daily during the week, however depending upon the number of comments received and the holiday closings, this may take a bit longer at first.

NOTE:  If you know of people who would like to comment but do not have a computer, please tell them to call our voice mail number (256-4175 ext. BLOG) and leave a voice message.