Malone may close two elementary schools, build new one

By DENISE A. RAYMO
Staff Writer

July 03, 2008 04:00 am

— 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.
The idea is to also build community soccer fields and baseball diamonds at the site to give families one place to go to watch their children play sports, he said.
The plan also has the new building set back far enough so as not to hamper commercial development along the potentially lucrative Route 11 road frontage.
The plan will provide three access points to the new school: U.S. Route 11, Houndsville Road and Junction Road.
Whipple said parents driving children to school would no longer be caught in a traffic bottleneck with school buses picking up or delivering children.
School Board member and Facilities Committee Chair Carol Hunter said transportation will greatly improve for families and that students will be safer.
Flanders Elementary is situated on Route 11, which is Main Street in the Village of Malone.
It has been the site of two accidents this year where children were struck by vehicles and is notorious for trapping parents and staff in the driveway as they try to enter the traffic flow.
SAVINGS FORESEEN
St. Joseph's School is built on 13 levels with an assortment of stairways and steps that don't meet handicapped-access codes. It also has antiquated technology and telephone systems.
Walbridge said going from five buildings to four will save taxpayers money and could draw economic development to the east end of the town and village where little interest has been generated.
The district, which contains about 2,500 students from nine townships, plans to sell the two buildings, according to the superintendent.
He said the town and village may be interested in the Flanders property to make it combined municipal offices in one site.
At the same time, Malone Central is working on shared-services ideas with the municipalities, which could include bus-garage and transportation ideas, salt-and-sand storage and more.
Everyone involved agrees the new educational sites are necessary not only for the needs of today but the anticipated needs decades into the future.
Walbridge said the Middle School project especially is a long time coming since it was last upgraded in 1995.
"The Middle School is going to be a major part of the project to bring this historical landmark into the 21st century."

draymo@pressrepublican.com

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