KLSD Board rejects request for more input on LES future

Lewisboro Elementary School. Jim MacLean photo

By JEFF MORRIS

At the April 10 Katonah-Lewisboro Board of Education meeting, board President Julia Hadlock responded to comments made at the previous meeting by Lewisboro Town Board member Richard Sklarin, who had asked for public forums regarding the future of the former Lewisboro Elementary School. Her response resulted in an extended discussion about the district’s universal pre-Kindergarten program.

Hadlock referred back to the board’s Jan. 16 meeting, where board member Lorraine Gallagher had reported on the findings of the LES/Shady Lane Committee, which was initially formed to determine the future of both LES and the old district offices on Shady Lane. After having recommended demolition of the Shady Lane building, its charge was extended to give LES more consideration. 

According to Gallagher, the committee’s plan is to maintain a third of the building, to fulfill most of the ideas that community members had come up with. These included Universal pre-K space; keeping the gym and allowing community use; having a multipurpose room; having fields available and “great outdoor space” to use; and possible solar arrays. The next step, she had said, would be to issue a request for proposals to obtain concrete numbers on what is needed to get the retained third of the building “where it needs to be” to be inhabited and “bring in new children in our growing pre-K program.” They then planned to look at costs for the rest of the building, and come back to the full board to give final numbers based on the RFPs.

The former school on Bouton Road currently houses several town departments, including building, planning, zoning, and the tax assessor, as well as being used for the justice court, hearing room, and police headquarters. The town recreation department uses the gym.

As far as Sklarin’s request for joint public meetings regarding LES, Hadlock said, “My sense is we have a plan that we’re moving forward with. Depending on what comes back from our architects in terms of proposals, we may feel the need to consider the other options and perhaps change course, but until that point I would think that we’re good with moving forward with the plan around the pre-kindergarten campus.”

Universal pre-K

Gallagher noted there had been a lot of public interest in the universal pre-K program so far, and Superintendent Ray Blanch said well over 100 parents had already expressed interest. 

“It would be great to be able to have a space for everybody that wants to be in the program,” added Julia Drake, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. 

Blanch said that’s the general target. He said they currently have one section of universal pre-K and will be up to three next year; the current thinking would add an additional five sections in the new space, for a total of eight. “We’d be getting very close to what we need to offer any parent that wanted [universal pre-K] services in the district, we would be able to provide that,” Blanch said.

Trustee Bill Swertfager asked about the maximum number of students per classroom. Drake said 18, but that it depends on the square footage; she said they are going to have two classes of 16 and one of 14. Blanch noted that the dedicated dollars they get from the state can only be used for universal pre-K, so it “doesn’t negatively impact the budget by any means.”

Trustee Marjorie Schiff asked how many students they can fund for universal pre-K right now. Drake said they have 44 students this year, based on the availability their partner had. She said they did not go out for an RFP again because they were happy with the provider, Country Children’s Center. “We were able to get two classrooms in the Vista location, and a classroom at the White House on 35 [in Katonah], so we’re up to 44,” Drake said.

Schiff asked whether if the district shows expanded interest and space to accommodate the kids, New York State will follow with the dollars. “Lisa already has it in the budget,” said Blanch, referring to assistant superintendent for business Lisa Herlihy, “We can’t access it until we show we have kids in those seats.” Herlihy said that was the confusing thing in the budget: “It looks like we’re getting more aid than we actually are; our allocation for UPK is approximately 160 school students it would fund seats for.” She said there is a set amount they are allocated per student; Hadlock confirmed 160 is the capacity they would have.

Centralized location

The state mandates a lottery for the pre-K program. Hadlock said over 100 people signed up for the lottery last year, and she would assume there were people who didn’t sign up but might do so if there was more general availability. “In thinking about where our current location is in the layout of the district,” said Blanch, “by having this as a very centralized space, absolutely I believe we’ll be able to drive more people to say ‘oh yeah, I’m interested for sure.’” Hadlock agreed that a central location would draw more interest.

Hadlock reiterated that in terms of public conversations about the LES property, the board has discussed it, and Town Supervisor Tony Gonçalves can reach out to the superintendent. “We’ve had meetings with Tony many times in town,” said Blanch, who said they are trying to coordinate timing. “We also know that as we get closer, our team is going to want to internally go and start taking some parts of the building off line.” He said they will know more when they get the RFPs back and have a better idea of the costs.

Blanch also noted that by having the building used for educational purposes moving forward, they will be able to get state aid to help with the project.