The list of consolidation options for the Batavia City School District briefly got a bit shorter Wednesday, when officials announced the elimination of Option 3, which would have stuffed too many kids in too few classrooms.
Now the number of proposals is bigger than it's ever been.
After unveiling Options 5a and 5b in a news release Wednesday, officials introduced a tentative "Option 6" (above) at their meeting Wednesday night at Batavia High School. The as-yet unofficial plan would build an addition (highlighted in blue) at John Kennedy Elementary school, allowing that building to accomodate all of the district's elementary students. John Kennedy would then become the only elementary school in the district.
Including sub-options 2a, 5a and 5b, there have now been eight announced ideas on how to realign the district and get rid of the Washington Avenue administration building.
"Financially, we're not the only ones in this situation. It's school districts around the country," said Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Jim Jacobs today. "Looking at many different options and seeing what fits best...is a big decision."
Jacobs presented "Option 6" Wednesday night, and further explained it today.
"If we were to create Option 6: if (John Kennedy) was (to be) a K-4 school, we'd need to add 20 classrooms. If it was a K-5, we'd need to add something like 30 classrooms," he said.
Jacobs' rough rendering (above) shows what the project could look like.
"Amazingly, the site can support it," he said.
The addition would be a capital project, meaning it would need voter approval. Jacobs calls the plan viable, but won't yet say if he personally supports it.
"We would have to sit down with the architect, and go over program and space needs, and administrative needs," he said. "Those details need to be worked out, to actually put a dollar amount on what the addition could cost us.
"This option takes us away from our neighborhood concept, and it puts us in one location," which are both downsides to the plan, Jacobs said.
It's unclear when or if "Option 6" will become an official consolidation option.
Meanwhile, options 5a and 5b, released Wednesday, were constructed entirely from parent suggestions at recent public meetings. Option 5a would move half of Batavia's K-4 into Jackson School, and the other half into John Kennedy School, along with pre-K. Administrators would move into Robert Morris School, and fifth-graders would move into the middle school.
Under Option 5b, administrators would move into Jackson, and K-4 students would go to Robert Morris. All other facets remain the same as 5a.
Both 5a and 5b preserve the idea of neighborhood schools, though each plan eliminates one of the current elementary schools.
The final public meeting on the consolidation process will be held at 6 p.m. next Tuesday night, Oct. 4, inside Jackson Elementary School.
900 kids and teachers all
900 kids and teachers all going to JK? Don't even waste time and money on this one. It will get voted down in a second. Instead of moving the kids all over the place why not have administrative relocate among the 3 elementary schools. This seems to make the most sense. With todays technology there is no reason this won't work.
It does make the most sense
It does make the most sense and that would be ideal. But according to the options presented, they are estimating a savings of $1 million by also cutting personnel like counselors, art and music, etc. -and save $ on infrastructure which is the only reason to close one of the schools. Administration could go anywhere and they have said that. And from what I understand builidng on to existing schools could be stated aided by capital project money but still have to be voted on by the public.
On the face of it, this
On the face of it, this sounds good. One building with one administration instead of three. utilities might be less also, along with less cost for maintenance and cleaning. But, the devil (as always) will be in the details.
And what would we do with the two schools that get closed? Not sure we can sell them.
We can't sell them. With the
We can't sell them. With the exception of the building on Washington Ave., we would have to give back money we already received from the state for capital projects. Mrs. Puzio explained that last night at the BHS meeting.
I find it very hard to
I find it very hard to believe that with all these so called college educated people in charge of the Batavia School District this is what they come up with..Build more classrooms ,So that they can move out of Washington Ave..To try to maybe sell it..And to maybe save money..Might as well keep it the same...I think in the end that is what they want to do anyways..They just want us all to get all up in arms so that we will all vote for higher taxes to keep it the same....How much space do they need..A couple of offices should do it...Move them all over to the JR.High..in the basement....How much did they pay for this idea..
Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Jim Jacobs presented "Option 6" Wednesday night, and further explained it today..Isn't he also the one who came up with the astro turf idea for VanDetta...
I like Jack Dorfs idea...
I havnt been following this
I havnt been following this that closly but do they even have a buyer for the washington building? or will sit abandoned and still cost the district money to maintain?
If you can not sell the other
If you can not sell the other two schools, then this idea does not seem all that good, and the moving classes around seems better.
I wonder why no one asked why
I wonder why no one asked why cost savings options will only effect elementary school students.
How about looking at some of the high school sports programs and asking parents to foot a part of the bill if their child wants to participate? Let's say 50% of the material/transportation costs and the school still carries the insurances. Any takers? To make it fair to low-income families, the offset could be done on a sliding scale.
Agreed Chris. I asked a
Agreed Chris. I asked a board member at the BHS meeting about that same thing. There was no answer.