Our Greenburgh Central School District just can’t seem to help itself. Between misdirection with maintenance of our schools, unnecessary evacuations of the mansion, investigations of Superintendent Chase, the firing of the old engineering firm and the hiring of a new one, promised dates missed for reports, attempted consolidation, a 3.96% tax increase to the 2020-21 budget, the Coronavirus cancellation of school and a waste of $300k to evacuate the Mansion, it’ll be a miracle if the public ever sees our dysfunctional school district function properly and actually educate our kids. Let’s dive in.
Consolidation
We’ve written about this extensively. About a year ago the Greenburgh Central School District (GCSD) Administration put forth a bond referendum in order to consolidate the multiple Greenburgh schools onto one campus. Effectually, they wanted to jettison the Highview School (Central Park Avenue behind Presser Park/Webb Field) and the RJ Bailey School on Hillside Avenue. The administration went to extremes to prove how dilapidated these structures were. Admittedly, there was some lack of maintenance and neglect with these buildings because we were told the Board made a conscious decision to allow the buildings to be neglected in order to not lay off teachers.
When we began to dig into the numbers, based on the facts and figures we were fed, the numbers simply didn’t add up. We learned that we were being lied to by the administration when we pressed them to explain what the bond principle plus the interest would be. They continued to maintain it was only $114 million dollars even though the NYS Board of Education information showed the interest to be almost as great as the principle. The real figure would have exceeded $200 million dollars! The school administration planned to sell the two schools to offset the loan amount. They gave an inflated approximation of what each school should fetch in the open market. A commercial real estate broker even said at a meeting that these buildings, at best, might fetch up to $3 million dollars each – a far cry from the $10-12 million we were being told they were worth.
Maintenance
We’ve already mentioned the Board made a conscious decision to allow the buildings to be neglected to not lay off teachers. Perhaps we can give them the benefit of the doubt for trying to save jobs? However, money was always included in the budget for maintenance and repairs – just not enough for the serious work that needed to be done. Responsibility for the failure to accomplish the necessary repairs falls right into the lap of the long time Board of Education members specifically and the Board as a whole. Was their goal to allow the schools to degrade to such a point that they became uninhabitable? Yes, we know it was.
The community Bond referendum meetings were preceded with slick mailers and superfluous information from the District to all of the Unincorporated resident taxpayers. The first two meetings brought out many residents. There were also a large number of administration members and teachers with their children present who spoke in support of the consolidation. Then taxpayers starting asking hardball questions. When Superintendent Chase was unable to provide them good answers, she reverted back to, “Don’t we want the best for our kids?” Of course we do. That’s why we pay Dr. Chase a $250k salary plus benefits. While not an issue until now, many of us are now being hamstrung by the Coronavirus. Many residents have lost their jobs and are now faced with paying annual federal and state income, Town, fire AND school taxes. Thankfully they are not dealing with the huge tax increase that would have resulted from passing the bond!
Budget and Tax Increase
It’s becoming apparent that trying to sustain the $73 million expense to educate fewer than 1,600 K-12 students is becoming more and more unrealistic. The budget that was presented on February 27th called for a budget increase of 3.96% ($2,801,301). Funding this amount calls for a 4.25% tax increase. So, while Mr Feiner is bragging about having no tax increase this year for the Town residents, that success will be eliminated by the School budget if this proposed budget should pass. During these fiscally uncertain times, it’s imperative that the School Board reduce this year’s budget (through attrition and perhaps a hiring freeze), repair our buildings and make sure there is NO tax increase for residents. After all, with students scoring 35% in both English and Math skills, something is beyond amiss in the GCSD.
The Sky Is Falling
After a 3-month summer hiatus and literally days before school was scheduled to start in September, Dr Chase ambushed us with the news that the Mansion was uninhabitable. She called for the immediate evacuation of the facility which houses the administration, maintenance, three Early Childhood Programs and a Special Needs classroom. The ECP and special needs classes were relocated to the Jackson School. A month later the administration employees were moved out. Not moved out were the maintenance people. Why would they be allowed to continue to work there if the building was unsafe?
The School Board appeared to sit on their hands until January, finally bringing in a company to do an evaluation of the building (another expense). While we were told the damage was caused by roof leakage, no provisions were made to seal those areas with tarps or anything else. The Board finally hired BBS Architects, Landscape Architects and Engineers (BBS) to evaluate the Mansion and the groundskeeper’s residence. At the last Board meeting we learned the building was not in danger of collapse and with $869,000 of repairs, it would be safe to return. It turns out while moving the kids in order to be safe could be appropriate, moving everyone else for the cost of $300,000 was not. That money, which could have been used for maintenance and repairs, is gone. After wasting all that money, time and effort building a new suite for Superintendent Chase in the Woodlands High School can she and her staff actually be going back to the Mansion to work?
Where We Are Now
The Mansion will require $869,000 for repairs not including the roof. The roof will cost about $1.5 million. However, $1.3 million dollars had been set aside and already authorized to be expended for those repairs. We’d like to know what is causing the holdup? By the way, $1.3 million plus $300,000 dollars equals $1.6 million dollars. The $300,000 spent to move out of the mansion would have made up the necessary shortfall to repair the roof.
Currently there’s talk that after spending close to $300k to move everyone from the Mansion to the other schools on the Warburg Campus they didn’t actually all need to move. There’s also talk that the Administrative staff and Superintendent will move back into the Mansion as there was no risk of collapse as we had been told by Superintendent Chase. These are the kinds of actions and frankly lies that make the public distrust the Superintendent, the Administration and the Board. The kids in the classrooms will remain where they are currently located and Principle Matt Smith will get his office back from Dr Chase. Where was the Board during this knee-jerk reaction and why weren’t they controlling the narrative instead of the Superintendent? She works for them!
The Board is also required by law to hold public hearings for the budget. How and what will transpire with the budget approval process? Will hearing dates be allowed to change to accommodate its public hearing requirement and vote?
Another issue were the online accusations made against Superintendent Chase and Principal Smith. Several months ago, unidentified persons writing under the email monikers of Watchdog For Greenburgh, Greenburgh Free Press, and several others wrote to a group of residents and ABG alleging questionable or illegal activity by the Superintendent and Principal, (referencing several topics that we will not post as we could not verify or corroborate them). Our understanding is that an investigation took place by the School Board utilizing an outside agency that will not be shared because they are a “personnel matters”. Convenient.
With Coronavirus blanketing our neighborhoods, schools everywhere are closed. Budgets may not be voted upon or passed for various reasons and contingency budgets may need to be adopted. Our guess is that schools may not reopen this year. If they do, it will not be for the entire in-school season. Should this prediction come to fruition, repair work for the mansion should begin as soon as possible as it could take several months and the repairs can be done through the summer. If that’s not possible, repair what can be repaired and get these buildings back in good operational shape.
We’ll see you at the budget hearings – eventually.
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