New Information Sessions Dates Added For School Bond Referendum

Many of our readers are nervous and extremely concerned about the $114.6 million school bond referendum that the Greenburgh Central School District is pushing. Why? Because a $400,000 home that is within the Greenburgh School District will see their taxes increase by about $800 per year! But according to the pro-bond proponents, this is good and will raise the value of our homes. Really?

Many seniors who are on a fixed income, are unsure how they will be able to pay this new increase. Dr Chase and our school board are clearly not concerned about them. If they were, they would be addressing alternatives. Rather than admit failure in running the school district, they prefer use one of Mr Feiner’s old and reliably tricks: deflection. This isn't about their failures as a Board, or that they intentionally neglected maintenance to the schools, or that kids learn better in a new environment. In fact, many teachers have readily admitted that while a new building would be nice, if the teachers have the kids engaged, they will learn and prosper. The brochure that the school district has produced shows a 96% graduation rate in 2018, 90% of graduates go to college along with a few other vague statistics.

If teaching Mandarin is so important, why aren’t other schools teaching it? Trendsetters you say? How about getting things to run well and then we can see about going down new and unproven avenues. Regardless of what we say, even though the numbers in our articles are real, come out and find out for yourselves. See below for the next meeting dates.

Classroom Warfare or Just Bullying

There seems to be a lot of class warfare going on in society nowadays, fueled by self-appointed community leaders and especially the media - whether you believe them to be fake or not. We're always hopeful that true community leaders will do what's necessary to help our neighborhoods and its residents. Some of our community leaders seem less concerned about the community members and more about what they want. With Mr Feiner and his Board, it's all about being re-elected and making sure they don't lose their full-time salaries for part-time work. For others, it's about a legacy.

During the month of January, Greenburgh School Superintendent Dr Chase began a series of presentations about the referendum for the bond that she, along with our elected school board wanted to undertake. We missed the first meeting, but have made the last two and would have made the next two had they not been postponed. There is yet another meeting being held on Thursday night, February 7, at the Theodore Young Community Center at 7 pm off of Manhattan Avenue.

We've previously written about the last two meetings, noting that they were very different in several ways. They were both held in the auditorium at the RJ Bailey School. This one was on a Saturday at 10 am, under the guise of "hearing the community" because many people could not always make evening meetings for a host of reasons. Fair enough. Unlike school which has a finite start and end time, this meeting apparently did not and started late. Yet, once the meeting had started, introductions were quickly made. The previous evening meeting found Dr Chase making introductions at some length. It seems there were a lot of Greenburgh Central School District teachers, administrative personnel, Board members and such in the audience. Here's a thought, ask all of those people to stand, quickly identify them and then start the meeting.

Two presentations had been utilized in those two meetings. The first one was longer and more comprehensive than the second one. We wonder what is in store for the next meeting? Either way, we hope those attendees will be getting more information instead of less. We also hope that the new practice of shutting down the voice of the people will not be done again. At the evening meeting residents and taxpayers were allowed to speak, ask questions, make comments and have somewhat of a dialog with the $114.6 million referendum bond proponents. While many were protesting, others were in favor while still others were on the fence. Hearing what neighbors, not necessary employees, have to say may be helpful to the undecided.

So, the Saturday meeting found the dialog removed. Gone. Now they handed out 3x5 inch index cards and asked for participants to write down and submit their questions. The audience was told they would go through them on the bus ride to the Highview School and to the Woodlands High School. That did not happen! It was already noted that this entire plan seemed well-crafted to keep the voting public in the dark about this entire event. Now it seems that the questions and comments were too much for the pro-bond sponsors. In fact, when the ABG publisher was questioning an answer from a school board member, a gentleman in a tan suit came over and tried to stop the board member from responding!

In addition to the ignored school maintenance, the enrollment in the district of 1,757 in 2015-2016 went down in 2017-2018 to 1,734. Certainly not a major shift but indicative of a trend that was also reported in the Friday Journal News (as well as other publications) entitled, High School Graduation Rates Dip Across Westchester. "Westchester County's overall high school graduation rate for the class of 2018 dipped slightly compared to the year before, with several school districts also seeing notable declines. The Bedford school district saw a 7 percent dip in their graduation rate between 2017 and 2018, the largest decline in the county. In Bedford, 84 percent of students graduated in 2018, down from 91 percent in 2017. The state data also shows that the Greenburgh school district saw a 7 percent dip in its graduation rate, going from 88 percent in 2017 to 81 percent in 2018, but these figures are being disputed by district officials."

Dr Chase dismissed the findings as an error in reporting methodology that she was working to "correct the apparent discrepancy in the data reporting." This piece of information couldn't come at a more inopportune time for her. Ironically, we were researching just this topic as one reader asked us about declining enrollment in general and in the northeast in particular. Further digging found that the exodus of school children is directly linked to an exodus from the incredibly highly-taxed states, such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. No surprise there as study after study explain that taxpayers are voting with their feet. Perhaps this should be seen as a warning salvo to Dr Chase?

A reader who was in support of the bond issue made these points nevertheless:
- Does Greenburgh Central School District (GCSD) have any enrollment studies about enrollment projections? 
- Birth rates are at a 30-year low; 
- Immigration seems to be slowing; 
- NYS continues to lose population; 
- GCSD appears to be losing enrollment for at least 3 consecutive years; 
- Enrollment has dropped from Kindergarten through 12th;
- NYSED clearly indicates even the Latin student numbers, traditionally steady or increasing, have decreased; 

 All valid points. And while the questions are abundant, the answers are not. Should Greenburgh build this new mega-campus, will we have the student body to sustain it? There has not been any information forthcoming from the school district to substantiate the pro-bond proponents' claims. Another parent also in favor commented that while he sees a need for maybe a 10, 20, and 30-year plan for the district, the secrecy and lack of tangible information is forcing him to oppose this.

Recently, Mr Feiner was quoted as being upset with the Governor's plans to cut state aid to Towns and Villages. "I think it’s wrong for the state to tell local governments to comply with the tax cap — to reduce property taxes — yet the state at the same time is cutting back their financial support, making it harder for local governments to comply," said Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, adding the town would lose $409,765. That bad news, along with the fact that Unincorporated Greenburgh Central School residents might soon be saddled with a whopping tax increase of a minimum of $800+ per year for single family homes! Add to that the yearly Town, County, Fire, Sewer and other district taxes and many residents may be forced out of their homes. Let's not forget that 48% of unincorporated Greenburgh's Fairview Fire District is tax exempt - so this will further hurt the people paying double of what they should have to carry the exempted properties. Finally, Mr Feiner has said he will be proposing a $49 million bond of his own to replace the Greenburgh Police headquarters and courts. That's over $163 MILLION in additional taxes!

Two meetings have recently been cancelled due to the cold weather and yet things are certainly heating up. There has only been one counter-proposal to the $114.6 million bond option and that is to do repairs by passing a different bond issue for $79 million. Surely, our school board can draw up some alternative ideas even though they helped to put us in this mess? While we are offended by Dr Chase's cavalier approach to what this will cost residents, not many of us make the $313k per year that she does and can easily afford a specialty coffee each day or to go out to dinner once a week as she apparently does and still have money left for necessities. This mindset must change. Alternatives that are not do-or-die must be researched and all facts and figures communicated in an open and clear fashion. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Cancelled Community Meeting To Be Rescheduled

Important Message

The weather model has not provided us with a steady nor definitive track of potential snow and ice for this evening. Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, the Greenburgh Central School District will cancel all after-school programs and evening activities for today, January 29. The community meeting scheduled for 7 pm at the Greenburgh Public Library will be rescheduled to a date in the very near future. Please visit our website, social media platforms and television station for a new community meeting date at the Greenburgh Public Library. Please be safe!

Forcing A Referendum By Omission

We had originally begun writing an article detailing the evening meeting held on Thursday, January 24th. Then we attended the Saturday, January 26th meeting at the RJ Bailey school and felt so much had changed that we had to rewrite it all.

With a late start on Saturday, Dr Chase welcomed everyone, and thanked the attendees for coming out and giving up their Saturday mornings. As such, she and fewer presenters were briefer than they had been on Thursday night. Thursday night she introduced many in attendance, which included the school board members, teachers, staff, etc. In fact, many we spoke with that night were convinced the crowd was intentionally filled with pro-bond beneficiaries who work for the district. We also understand that while this may be the case, there are those non-employees that favor this proposal.

To listen to those only in favor of the bond talk about it, you’d expect to find our children sitting in condemned buildings. To be fair, the buildings do need work to put them in better shape. Why are they in such bad shape? Read on.

We find it interesting that the school district leaders have let the maintenance of the buildings degrade when they claim to be doing everything “for the children”. They agree with Dr Chase that there is pride when you can go to work or school in a bright, new building instead of an older one. We agree. However, these buildings only degraded due to the intentional decisions to do so. We asked a Board member if he agreed with Dr Chase’s assumption about the conditions of a school affecting their learning and he did. No surprise there.

When asked then why they would not do the necessary maintenance for all of these years to make the learning environment the best it could be, he said it was a conscious decision to put off maintenance so as to not be forced to lay teachers off. Huh? If you’re doing everything for the students and their environment really does affect their ability to learn, then it appears that they are derelict in their duty to the students, the school district and the taxpayers by making the wrong choices regarding maintenance over the years. Besides, the public has approved every budget they’ve submitted and given them what they've asked for. 

The presentation made on Thursday night seemed to be comprised of about 15 to 20 slides. It was changed for the Saturday morning crowd and reduced to maybe 8 to 10 slides. It was also lacking some of the statistical information that had been there for the Thursday night crowd. Why the change? C’mon, you know why. And should a taxpayer challenge information in the presentation, Dr Chase’s retort was usually, “But imagine how much more we could do if we did this?” Even with a vivid imagination, and a 96% graduation rate or that 90% of graduates go to college, there will always be some portion of the high school community that will not graduate or go on to college. This is our hard earned money, so please, no imagining, just facts.

It was reiterated in Saturday’s presentation about how many transitions a student in Greenburgh must go through as they progress through the school system. Apparently, these kids are somehow traumatized by having to use different schools as they “age up” and move from their one school to the next. Transitions – a part of life – we’re told have a negative effect on a child’s learning ability. And yet, when they finish building everything they want to build, each of the same grade delineations will continue to have transitions: separate office for each of the different grade levels, separate entrances, separate gyms, separate cafeterias – although with a common kitchen and separate playground spaces. Separate, but equal. So really, nothing seems to change for the students.

The Lee F Jackson school is slated under this expansion plan to get 20 new classrooms. With an increase in size of this magnitude, many have raised concerns about the added traffic through the Juniper Hill neighborhood’s limited access. More buses traveling back and forth to the school can only mean more traffic and accidents. In fact, many commented on the already overburdened and sometimes perilous traffic on West Hartsdale Avenue during rush and school hours creating three choke points. Putting all students in one place promises more grief for motorists living in the area and using an already congested set of roadways. The audience was told they didn’t have traffic information and studies would have to be done.

Another stumbling block is that this glossy presentation lacks specific information and an honest presentation of facts. We’re only being given the information the pro-bonders want us to have. It’s claimed in their original proposal that Woodlands High School “needed” repairs. That made the original referendum/bond offering at $166 MILLION. We believe initial pushback and limited negative feedback put the proposal in jeopardy so adjustments were made and the repairs to Woodlands High School were dropped. The new bond number was now $114.6 MILLION. Woodlands High School repairs can now wait until after the sale of Highview and RJ Bailey. So, once again necessary maintenance and repairs can will be kicked down the road in hopes of the bond going through? If it doesn’t pass, the pro-bonders are ready with another one, this time for $79 MILLION. It just never ends.

The public is being told that this $114.6 MILLION bond would cost the taxpayers $14 a month per $100,000 assessed value based on a 30-year average. The yearly figure for most taxpayers will be about $800+ per year based on a home worth $400,000. In fact, Dr Chase referenced the Mamaroneck School District on Saturday as ammunition for her cause, stating Mamaroneck is investing in their kids, schools and community. Yes, they are. But they have a larger tax base to draw from. Mamaroneck has approximately 5,300 students to Greenburgh’s 1900, which dramatically alters the playing field and translates to a much lower impact on taxpayers! And, let's not forget that Greenburgh pays the most money per student out of any of the public schools in Westchester.

Mamaroneck Schools, for all intents and purposes, appears to be doing the same renovations/upgrades/improvements that Dr Chase claims we will be doing should this referendum pass. Those include: fire alarms, mechanical equipment and security systems updates; floors and ceilings would be repaired along with asbestos abatement; repairs would be made to building exteriors, including roofs, window replacement and brick restoration; sidewalks, fences, retaining walls and doors would also be repaired; new air conditioning and ventilation units would be installed in some schools. What they are not doing is tearing down existing buildings and building new ones. If Greenburgh were to just do repairs and renovations, it will “only” cost taxpayers $79 MILLION.

The last disturbing portion of Saturday’s exercise was that they purposely decided not to let people speak. They handed out 3”x5” index cards for taxpayers to submit their questions. Someone stated, “Oh, so they’re using that old ploy to keep us silent.” Told they would discuss the questions on the bus ride to the other schools, that never happened. While Thursday night’s meeting did allow residents to speak, we believe the comments rattled the presenters and brought up too many good points, glaring inaccuracies and some embarrassing actions on behalf of those decision makers who chose to intentionally allow the disrepair of our school systems buildings. 

Dr Chase also reiterated that there is a lot of misinformation “out there” spreading false information. When we started learning about this new referendum and doing a small amount of research, we became quickly dismayed as there was very little information “out there”. We had originally thought more highly of our school district than we do now. The video the school district has been showing to push this project has a few of Mr Feiner’s sycophants in it. While we don’t hold much credence in what they say, having the young student who is in the video saying they can’t go upstairs in the auditorium because it’s dangerous is patronizing. Having that same student speak during the Saturday meeting was wrong and just pandering. 

The meeting was believed to be set up so that taxpayers could learn how this project will affect them. That was shut down on Saturday as the index cards were unanswered, the tour was superfluous and more questions than answers seem to abound. Stop using Mr Feiner’s playbook and tell the truth – tell both sides of the equation. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.