Parents Ask the Board to Fund Renovation of SHS Auditorium

The proposed 2022-23 school budget is moving toward approval by the Board and community. The primary change for next year will be the addition of ten full time employees, primarily to address student mental health needs at all grade levels.

As of Monday March 7, the proposed budget would be 3.85% higher than the previous year, translating to a 2.43% increase for Scarsdale residents and 3.68% for those in the Mamaroneck strip. The total projected budget for 2022-23 is $173,291,393.

Assistant Superintendent Stuart Mattey warned that these are volatile times, and said that the budget includes $500,000 in contingency funds originally designated for COVID expenses but not to be put aside for general expenses such as unexpected increases in utility costs.

See all the details here:

Parents will be pleased to know that the budget includes funds to improve Wifi service in and around the schools, so that parents, students and visitors will be able to connect inside and outside the schools. Specifically, the technology budget will be “increased one-time to pay for a comprehensive WiFi coverage analysis of all building. The analysis will produce “heat maps” which will inform the team of “dead spots” where students, staff, or visitors cannot connect to the WiFi networks. The increase will also provide the necessary funding to install additional WiFi access points to remedy the "dead spots.”

Though much of the district’s infrastructure was updated with funding from the 2014 and 2018 bonds, Mattey explained that several new projects would be funded with $630,000 in plant improvements. Most of these funds will be used to replace aging condensate pumps at Edgewood, the Middle School and the High School, for an LED lighting upgrade in the Fox Meadow Library and a new entrance ramp at the Scarsdale Alternative School. The Heathcote Elementary School Office will be replaced at a cost of $485,000.

SHS Auditorium

However one project that has been delayed for many years is the renovation of the Scarsdale High School Auditorium. Funding for the project was included in the 2014 bond but was delayed when the cost of other projects came in higher than anticipated. In the 2020-21 budget $700,000 was allocated and it was spent on stage rigging, the sound system, electrical and theatrical wiring upgrades, storage, painting backstage lighting and motorized winches.

Mattey said that water infiltration from the courtyard continues to be an issue in the auditorium. This needs to be addressed and will require a substantial investment.

Another $485,000 for additional work on the lighting and wiring was also allocated and Mattey said project bids were opened and this work can be done in the summer.

However, the school’s new theater director David Graybill has identified additional acoustical gaps and the auditorium seating, carpeting and stage flooring still need to be replaced. The estimated cost is $1.5- $1.7 million. Given this new information, Mattey recommended putting off the work until the 2023-24 budget, ten years after it was originally proposed.

Commenting on his recommendation, Laura Gelblum and Diane Greenwald from the Scarsdale Friends of Music and Arts in the Schools read the following statement at the Board of Education meeting:

Thank you to the administration and Board for the comprehensive budget study session at 6pm tonight, and our gratitude especially to Stuart Mattey for working with us.

As the nonprofit parent booster group supporting visual and performing arts in Scarsdale schools, FMA believes arts education provides opportunities for students to connect, find self-expression, and cultivate well-being. Commitment to and investment in arts education has been, is and should always be central to any Scarsdale educational program, especially one focused on the whole child.

FMA hopes that the Board and administration will reconsider the current budget recommendation to delay auditorium improvements and approve a remaining scope of work with a heightened sense of process and urgency. We strongly prefer including funds for next phase improvements in the 2022-23 school budget.

The auditorium work was originally approved by a town-wide referendum for $1M—a community mandate to prioritize the work—but has been delayed for nearly a decade. While the auditorium project has waited, millions of dollars of district capital improvements for other projects have been prioritized, funded and completed.

Last year, the Board considered funding the remaining auditorium work but ultimately approved a 2nd phase (Phase 2A), leaving the remainder to be scoped out this year. The theater review/audit and acoustic study undertaken this year were helpful steps, but the process still has not included input from key faculty and other stakeholders and, importantly, there’s been no timeline for developing and pricing the scope of remaining work. Dr. Graybill, the new Theatre Tech Director, has been a terrific addition to the team and has brought some exciting ideas to the table, including potentially looking into ways to improve sightlines to performers in the back of orchestra and band ensembles, and ways to address student-requested maintenance and updated video monitors in the Orchestra Pit. We’d like to see these ideas explored and rough-priced now to determine if they can be included in the next scope of work, covered by the performing arts department budget, or if FMA could help fundraise for these upgrades.

Additionally, since the most recent work came in approximately $100K under budget, we hope that savings are being returned to performing arts student needs.

Our concerns about delaying the renovation:
No guarantee that funds for 2023-24 will be approved for remaining work.

Slating auditorium renovations to the 2023-24 budget would delay actual work to 2025—11 years after the 2014 bond.

The auditorium renovation delay also delays improvements needed for other performing arts facilities, like the SHS Little Theater. During the committee review leading up to the 2014 Bond, the auditorium was prioritized over the Little Theater, which also needs renovation to address the need for a smaller performance and multi-purpose space and to expand programming for students.

FMA is grateful to have been included in auditorium committee discussions. Nonetheless, FMA does not feel the budget recommendation aligns with community values or sufficiently serves students. We request a reconsideration and creative solutions that might move the work into the 2022-23 budget.

Thank you for your time here tonight and for sharing our love of arts education, which in many ways is mental health care, a district priority. Art is the place where possibility lives and we are optimistic for a bright future.

Here are some other items of interest from the March 7 Board of Education meeting:

COVID:

There have been 20 COVID cases reported since students returned from break – all at the high school. The district plans to move away from PCR saliva testing to antigen tests, of which they have an ample supply.

Given the new numbers, the district will reopen the gym at Heathcote, even though it has no ventitalion, for single class use.

During lunch, kids care permitted to sit at the same tables and to be unmasked. The district has found it challenging to hire staff for the cafeterias, so for the balance of this year no hot lunches will be available. They hope to reinstate hot lunch in September.

What about hot lunch? We don’t hav ethe staff to bring them into the elementary school cafeterias. Very challenging – so for now, cold lunch.

School and Classroom Libraries

Assistant Superintendent Edgar McIntosch said that the district has done an audit of all books to make sure they represent a diverse perspective. While doing this work, the district found that they need more books for kindergarteners and first graders that are easily decodable for early readers. They will purchase these books.

Superintendent Search

Board President Karen Ceske reported on the search for an interim superintendent to replace Dr. Hagerman who will leave the district at the end of the school year. She said that the Board reached out to the community to get their input on the qualifications for an interim superintendent and received 108 responses. They have incorporated this feedback into the job description that will be used to identify an interim leader for the Scarsdale Schools.

Ron Schulhof reported that a board subcommittee comprised of himself, Bob Klein and Jessica Resnick-Ault were working on developing an RFP to select a search firm to seek candidates for the next superintendent of the Scarsdale Schools. He said that they district will issue an RFP, allow up to 8 weeks for responses, and then vet and select a firm.