Greenacres: Taking the School off the Agenda Does Not Make the Problem Go Away

Now that I have had a chance to take a pause and reflect on the discussion about the future of Greenacres School, the path to the future and the framework for making the decision seem clearer than ever.

It seems to me that if the Board of Education and the Administration consider just the following three questions, the answers will put them on the road to resolving the issues and moving forward.

Here are the three questions to ponder:

First: Since the school is inadequate, should Scarsdale re-district and bus Greenacres kids elsewhere in the district?

Second: Should the new or renovated school meet model standards for classroom sizes and overall square footage per child?

Third: If a renovation of the existing school will take three years, is it fair, safe or reasonable to expect young children to attend a school that's a construction zone for three years?

Let's take these questions one at a time and discuss the merits of each.

Is re-districting the answer?

I have heard some suggest that the district close Greenacres all together and disperse these 400 odd children to other elementary schools or bus them to Quaker Ridge where a large, multi-floored school could be built. To me, this solution would create more problems than it solves. As far as I know, there are not 18 available classrooms in other parts of the district, so this answer would require construction and disruption elsewhere. Furthermore, Greenacres parents moved here for a neighborhood school and the community was built around five neighborhood elementary schools that feed into a central middle school and high school. I don't believe this concept is negotiable.

Others have suggested that the fifth graders be sent to the middle school, one year earlier. Again, it does not appear that the middle school and the current house system could accommodate four, rather than three grades of children.

For all these reasons, re-districting Greenacres kids does not appear to be the answer.

Should the renovated or new school meet model standards?

Again, there is really no debating this one. If the district is going to invest in a 21st century school, it should definitely meet current requirements, which includes adequate space for the students. Who moved to Scarsdale for undersized and inadequate schools?

Greenacres currently has 78 square feet of usable space per student as compared to an average of 105 square feet per student at the other four elementary schools, meaning it has 26% less overall usable space than other schools. According to architects KG&D, the optimal classroom size is 950 square feet for kindergartners, with 43 square feet of space per student for classes of 22 students. Classrooms for kids in grades 1 thru 5 should be 850 square feet.

Under the Greenacres B1 renovation plan, six new classrooms would be built that meet model standards, but the other classrooms, including those for the youngest children would remain way below current standards. The school would still have no real cafeteria or auditorium and the gym would remain in original 1914 condition, minus the large windows that would be covered up by the new classrooms.

Therefore, since we can't build a school that meets the model standards through a renovation, that option should be off the table.

Is it reasonable to ask young children to attend a school under renovation for three years?

Again the answer seems obvious to me. Why, as a potential homeowner, would I move my young family to Greenacres to have one, two or even three children live through a three-year renovation at their school? Some parents have environmental concerns, which are reasonable given the school's history of poor air quality and a wet basement, in addition to the risks of tearing out sections of a building that is over 100 years old. Others are simply concerned that their kids won't be able to concentrate given the noise and distraction. Last, kids would need to be rotated around the school depending on the staging of the work, which is far from an optimal experience. One woman already reported that she was having trouble selling her house in Greenacres due to fears about a potential three-year school renovation.

Given all the above, it seems clear to me that the district needs to build a new school across the street and keep the kids in the old school until the work is done. There is no other way.

While we wait, the kids are crowded, there's no room for specials, lunch is served in three periods and the facility remains subpar when compared to the environments at other district elementary schools.

There's no longer a reason to wait and see. Taking the matter off the agenda doesn't make the problems go away. With $60 million in debt expiring in May 2017, the Board and the Administration have a responsibility to fulfill the promise they made to the community to "deal with Greenacres" in a Spring 2017 bond resolution to fund a new school. Don't delay ... don't take polls ... consider the facts and move forward.

(This is an opion piece from Scarsdale10583 site founder Joanne Wallenstein)

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