Greenacres Neighborhood Association Urges School Board to Move Forward on School

(This letter was sent to the Scarsdale School Board by the GNA. A shorter version was read at the meeting by Linda Doucette Ashman)
On behalf of the Greenacres Neighborhood Association, I want to address two topics:

(1) First, I want to share concerns expressed by members of our association regarding Greenacres School and,

(2) Second, I want to, again, invite the School District Administration and Scarsdale Board of Education to participate in a moderated forum with the sole purpose being for the District to present an update and timeline for work to be done at Greenacres School and engage in a conversation with residents answering their questions and listening to their views.

Concerns:
The primary concerns that we have heard are: (1) lack of information on plans for moving forward with the Greenacres School, (2) lack of sense of urgency to address the Greenacres School all together and (3) continued delay of structural work at the Greenacres School to ensure parity with other Scarsdale schools.

(1) Lack of Information:
The District notified the community in September that it was choosing to "pause" the work underway regarding the Greenacres School. This came as a surprise to some residents. For approximately two years, the District has held meetings, engaged architects and other stakeholders to study the school and proposed options and solutions and convened two Building Committees to evaluate priorities for the educational needs of the building. Now the community is faced with silence. Despite an assurance to the contrary, there have been no communications from the District setting forth goals, plans or even a timeline on the next steps to be taken with regards to the Greenacres School. Concerns are now being raised that the lack of a publicly articulated "Going Forward" plan may result in no plan for addressing the Greenacres school in the foreseeable future.

(2) Timing:
We all are well aware of the thoughtful process that District Administration undertakes when it comes to budgeting for the District facilities' needs (including its assessment/analysis of existing debt/ bonds and what is retiring). This process is long and meticulous and integrated into the District's annual budgeting process which will begin shortly. With no public "Going Forward" plan on Greenacres, residents are concerned about where the Greenacres School work fits in to the District's overall timeline. These are issues that must be discussed and resolved now if the Greenacres School is to be addressed during the next wave of School District projects scheduled for the next 5 years.

(3) Delay:
As we all know, the process of determining what to do with Greenacres School began years ago. The School District created a list of District's priorities and the Greenacres School was put last as the work needed was too significant to be combined with other facility upgrades. These conversations and decisions predate the current School District Administration and most, if not all, of the members of the Board of Education.

We are now approaching the end of 2016. Another year has passed and still no closure to the process for deciding what is needed for the Greenacres School and how these needs will be addressed. If our community is to have any hope of an updated or new Greenacres School in the next five to seven years, the District needs to act now. It can start with the one step the District itself identified in its September, 2016 letter – "to coalesce the community around a shared vision/option that focuses on Greenacres students and their learning". The budget process begins shortly. Once that process begins, more doors will be closed for Greenacres and the project will be furthered delayed by yet another year.

The Greenacres School work deserves a place at the top of the District's priority list now. Our neighborhood community has repeatedly been told to be patient and wait while other schools in the district received the attention. Residents in our community have consistently supported initiatives at other schools, expecting that, when the time came, the entire Scarsdale community would support Greenacres School solutions in order to ensure parity in structures across the District.

To demonstrate that the District intends to commence any work on the Greenacres School initiative during 2017, we request that you: (1) develop and implement a "Going Forward" plan on next steps and (2) inform the Greenacres community and the Scarsdale community at large on what those steps are. It is critical that the School District and Board of Education develop and provide a 21st century learning environment for Greenacres children. To this end, we again reiterate our offer to host and moderate an event in either January or February of 2017 for the School District to do this and allow the residents opportunities to ask questions and share their views. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on this endeavor.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Andrew Sereysky
President,
Greenacres Neighborhood Association