Published July 02, 2008 11:00 pm - Preliminary plans also include millions in Middle School upgrades, added athletic fields and fewer expenses for taxpayers.
Malone may close two elementary schools, build new one
New building, closing others being proposed
By DENISE A. RAYMO
Staff Writer
MALONE -- A new pre-K-to-5 building would be constructed, and Flanders and St. Joseph's Elementary schools would close in a plan under study by the Malone Central School District.
Preliminary plans by the Capital Campaign Committee also call for unspecified millions to be spent to upgrade the Middle School and minor improvements to Davis Elementary to make it a pre-K to 5 building.
PUBLIC OK NEEDED
The price for the proposed work has not been finalized, said District Superintendent Wayne Walbridge, but a series of committee meetings with the capital-campaign team in the next few weeks should settle on a figure by August.
Voter approval is needed before any construction or major renovations take place.
School officials are hoping to have public presentations during September and October, with a district vote on Dec. 2.
If approved, construction would begin in early 2010 and be completed by September 2012.
"Some of the information is not available, but we're getting awfully close," Walbridge said.
The School Board will hear updated information at its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the High School, when the architecture firm in charge of the plans, CS Arch of Albany, gives a presentation.
Other public meetings are planned for Aug. 12 and 26, also at 7 p.m. at the High School.
A transportation study will be conducted to work out busing issues, and class sizes will be determined, although preliminary numbers show 17 to 18 children in pre-K, first- and second-grade classes and more like 20 per classroom for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.
Final numbers will be based on enrollment figures, which also determine which students will attend the new elementary school and which will go to Davis, said District Business Manager Timothy Whipple.
Traditionally, students living north of Route 11 attend Flanders and those living south attend St. Joe's. But that will change because the transportation routes will be drawn on an east-to-west basis, not north and south anymore.
SPORTS FIELDS
Whipple said the district has an option on a 110-acre parcel off Houndsville Road that is now a corn field.
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