SCOTIA-GLENVILLE
District wants public input on buildings plan
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter

Residents will have a chance to weigh in on a potential school building renovation and athletic fields proposal at two upcoming community forums.

The forums will be held at 7 p.m. on June 19 and at 10 a.m. on June 21 at Scotia-Glenville Middle School.

For the last six months, the Board of Education has been studying the needs of the six school buildings with the goal of putting it before voters in the fall, possibly in November.

In April, the board reached a consensus around a roughly $12.7 million building proposal. This would include $5 million for maintenance projects and roof repairs at all the schools.

The project would also renovate science and technology classrooms and enclose the currently open library at the middle school and renovate the technology rooms at the high school at a cost of $4.5 million. The third component of the project would repair the athletic fields including adding artificial turf, a multipurpose field with track field event area and 500-seat bleachers.

The project would be partially funded by a $935,000 grant the district received from the state’s Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning (EXCEL) program.

Superintendent Susan Swartz said she plans to put a PowerPoint presentation and photographs on the district Web site at www.ScotiaGlenvilleSchools.org.

“We’ll be asking people who participate to let us know what they think we are missing in terms of a building proposition,” she said.

The last major building improvement at Scotia-Glenville was in 1999. People who cannot attend the meetings may send their comments through the district’s Web site.

The Board of Education on Monday also received a report from the traffi c firm of Safety Rules!, which had analyzed the area bounded by Sacandaga Road, Vley Road and roughly the village boundary on the south. The district had received concerns from parents about children who have to walk to school inside that area because they live too close to schools to be bused. Parents expressed concern about whether the roads had adequate shoulders and speed on the road.

Safety Rules! concluded that the area does not qualify as a “child safety zone” under state guidelines, which would require busing. The report said all students who live on all houses south of Henry Street on Vley Road as well as all houses on Henry Street and Weathercrest Drive have other walking routes close by that do involve using Sacandaga Road — Pine Street and Albermarle Road.

Swartz said the district had been providing transportation to these students while the study was conducted. In the future, it would continue to provide transportation if it is feasible with the existing bus routes, but it is not required to do so.

RECOGNITIONS
In other business, the board on Monday recognized four retiring teachers. David Doak, a fifthgrade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School and longtime coach of varsity cross country and track and eld at the junior varsity, freshman and modified levels, is leaving after 27 years. John George is leaving after 36 years of service to the district, mostly teaching fifth and sixth grades at Glendaal Elementary School. First-grade teacher Deborah Roedel, a 34-year teaching veteran, is retiring from Lincoln Elementary School. Social studies teacher Louis Schiavone, who taught every history subject from seventh through 11th grade, is also stepping down after 32 years.

The board also honored five outstanding seniors for its outstanding student leadership awards — Katherine DeVantier, Thomas Gallant, Laura Osselmann, Kelly Trepess and Ben Wegener. These students were selected on the basis of who contributed the most to their school and their community in service projects.