Binghamton City School District board holds off decision on possible school closure
The Binghamton City School District board decided during their regular board meeting Tuesday night to consider further community input before making any decision on closing an elementary school and also raised the option of rebuilding one of the schools.
The future of Woodrow Wilson, Horace Mann, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson schools has been debated over the past month.
A feasibility study incited by the district began in May 2021 to evaluate building conditions and capacity, enrollment trends, and transportation needs for all 10 of the district's buildings.
Details of the plan were discussed in a board work session June 7 and public input on the plan began at the district board meeting June 14, which continued with five community sessions in the following weeks after parents and community members pushed back about the lack of information and transparency regarding the study.
Lists of input shared by members of the initial community forum, the June board meeting and the five additional community forums were presented during Tuesday's meeting and split into three categories: impact on the school community, impact on the students and families and impact on the neighborhood.
Among the concerns were a potential disruption of the strong sense of individual elementary school communities, bussing issues and the removal of Roosevelt adding to the pre-existing lack of resources on the North Side.
"It seems like some of this is that they never put enough money into these schools to begin with for years now," Horace Mann parent Amy Zieziula said. "Now, it feels like damage control."
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Background and cost of study
In a letter sent to parents on May 18, which parents say is the first time they were informed of a potential school closure, the board said "several scenarios are being considered by the board, which may result in the rebuilding, repurposing, and/or closing of one or more school buildings."
At both the June board meeting and at each community forum, data gathered through the feasibility study was presented to parents and community members.
Studies to assess the conditions of all 10 buildings and enrollment, which included demographics and enrollment projections, were completed, and a transportation study is still in the works.
The total cost of the feasibility study was $336,000, with $25,000 allotted for district-wide enrollment projections, $142,000 for the facilities capacity report, $96,000 for the facilities condition report and an additional $25,000 for a transportation study.
Results show all of the elementary schools are consistently not at capacity and have seen a slow but steady decline in enrollment over the past five years.
Costs of personnel and staff redeployment for each school were included in the presentations, which used data reported by the school through a state-mandated transparency reporting process, according to Superintendent Tonia Thompson.
Officials said three of the elementary schools, MacArthur, Calvin Coolidge and Benjamin Franklin, are not at risk of closing because of recent upgrades, leaving Woodrow Wilson, Horace Mann, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson still in consideration of closing.
Newly added Tuesday was an option to not close a school at all, but instead institute a four-year plan to rebuild Theodore Roosevelt which would cost between $45 million and $65 million.
Zieziula says the option of rebuilding Roosevelt without closing a school is interesting.
"I think, certainly, more information was available," Zieziula said. "It seems like there's greater thought going into things and that they are hearing some of the community feedback."
However, if any one of the elementary schools beside Roosevelt is decommissioned, Roosevelt will still need to be rebuilt.
What's next?
Recommendations made to the board going forward to ensure the decision making process is transparent, inclusive and considers the voice of the community include holding additional community forums with all board members present throughout the month of September and engagement with members of the community interested in reviewing enrollment data.
And although there was inclusion of some potential benefits of the process during Tuesday's board meeting, BCSD parent Sidney Dement still feels unconvinced.
"I haven't been convinced that those things couldn't be met by having a vision for smaller schools that could be financially sustainable," Dement says. "You can't just say we need to decommission a school in order to rebuild another. There has to be a better vision."
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This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Binghamton school closure: Decision delay to allow public input
