Rem/Speonk School Board will look to taxpayers for feedback

Members of the Remsenburg/Speonk School Board said this week that they will confer with taxpayers before moving forward with another plan to renovate the district’s single elementary school.

The district has been working on a plan to expand the Mill Road school, which officials contend is overcrowded, with the intention of putting forward a referendum in September. But after meeting with architects and a construction firm, School Board members said they might delay the vote until October, and run some ideas past the community in the meantime.

“It seems to me that maybe we took a step forward a little prematurely, that we need to have another discussion,” said School Board member Joel Petersen at a work session on Monday, February 22.

At that meeting, the School Board went into a closed executive session for about an hour to discuss a proposed contract with representatives from a local construction firm for work related to the expansion project, according to School Board President Tom Kerr. He declined to identify the firm or discuss the talks in detail, but said that a contract was not signed.

According to the New York State open meetings law, public officials are allowed to enter executive session in order to discuss and negotiate contracts.

After the meeting was opened back up to the public, board members discussed the idea of creating a focus group of residents to help them fashion an expansion plan that would meet the district’s needs while remaining palatable to taxpayers. Board members have said that they are seeking consensus on the current plan, after a previous $14.7 million project that would have doubled the size of the elementary school was overwhelmingly rejected by taxpayers in December 2008.

“You don’t do the whole thing and then try to introduce it and sell it,” said School Board member Cecilia Spellman-Frey at Monday’s meeting. “You try to get everyone involved from the beginning.”

“Especially those who opposed it,” Mr. Petersen added, referring to the failed bond.

The School Board assembled a focus group composed of district residents after that bond was defeated, and asked them to issue a report on the space needs of the school, which was completed in May. At Monday’s meeting, board members proposed reassembling and expanding that group, which originally included nine community members, two former School Board members, Director of Special Education Jan Achilich and Superintendent Dr. Katherine M. Salomone.

While no motion was passed, board members unofficially agreed to take that route. They said the purpose of the focus group would be to receive feedback from district taxpayers.

“We’re trying to listen to them and we need them here,” Mr. Kerr said.

In late January, School Board members met with architects from six different firms, who produced sketches of possible expansion designs. Mr. Kerr said that while the sketches did come with cost estimates, he was not yet prepared to release those numbers or the details of the plans. He said he would like the focus group to be able to evaluate them on their design merits first, before discussing the costs.

Board members have also said that the current expansion plan will be scaled back from the proposal rejected by taxpayers in 2008.