3
Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Valley Central seat to remain vacant
Continued from page 1
the council decided during its Feb. 11
meeting not to fill the seat left vacant
when former Trustee Joseph Byrne
resigned last month. Now voters will get
the chance to find his replacement, as the
slot will be up for grabs in the May school
board election.
Board Vice President Sarah Messing
and Trustee Brad Conklin will also be
up for re-election this spring, and the
council will presumably be back to seven
members if at least one other candidate
emerges to compete for a spot on the
board. With the tight time frame to fill
Byrne’s vacancy, the group opted to stick
with six members for the rest of the
school year.
“You’d have to post the job, advertise
it and then interview people, and I guess
they didn’t feel there’s enough time in
between now and May,” Valley Central
Superintendent John Xanthis explained.
“By the time that all happened, the
election would be upon us. So they decided
to keep it vacant until the election.”
After the board’s Jan. 22 meeting ended
with Trustee Sheila Schwartz accusing
Board President Melvin Wesenberg of
verbally abusing her, an investigation was
launched by the district into the incident.
No lingering signs of hostility were
present during last Monday’s meeting,
as the board went about its business as
usual, with no mention of the incident.
“It’s under investigation,” Xanthis said.
“I said to the board tonight that after a
meeting filled with a lot of tension, even
during the meeting, tonight was a much
better night for the district. They showed
themselves to be ready to put that stuff
behind them and move on for the good of
the district, but more so for the good of
the kids.”
During last week’s meeting, a Town of
Montgomery police officer was present
in the room at the district’s request for
the first time after the incident that took
place after the previous meeting. “We
thought it would be good public safety
just to have somebody here at the board
meeting,” the superintendent said. The
district plans to continue to invite the
department to send an officer to each
meeting for the remainder of the school
year. “I think it might not be a bad way
to continue,” Xanthis said. “I didn’t have
anybody question why that was the case
tonight, and as long as it doesn’t hurt the
manpower of the Montgomery police and
they’re able to provide that, I’d say we
probably should continue that, at least
through June 30th and we seat a new
board.”
Transportation issues
The transportation issues that district
families have experienced since the East
End Bus Lines company took over Valley
Central’s bus contract last year continue
to linger, as a group of local parents
spoke to the board during last Monday’s
meeting in hopes that the delays would
finally be resolved.
Deborah O’Keefe, whose child is a
first grader at Montgomery Elementary,
noted that children have had to endure
needlessly long bus rides. “My daughter’s
bus route currently requires the students
to be in transit for obscenely long
amounts of time, averaging about 45
minutes each way,” she explained to the
board. “On multiple occasions, students
have been on the bus from anywhere to an
hour to an hour and 15 minutes because
substitute drivers were sent to the school
half an hour after dismissal and were
given incomplete routes that didn’t show
students recently added and the longest
distance stops.”
O’Keefe told the board that children
have become psychically ill from enduring
long bus rides. “Students have been on the
bus so long they’ve been reduced to tears,
urinated themselves and gotten sick,”
she said. O’Keefe also explained that her
previous efforts to get answers about
the problems resulted in no satisfaction.
“Despite numerous attempts to resolve
the issues with the bus company and
the district, I’ve been informed that no
changes are being made and the issues
will remain as is,” she said. “Each time
I’m given nothing more than a blanket
apology and told that they’re isolated
incidents and won’t happen again. The
bus company puts blame on the district
and instructs me to resolve it with them,
and the district tells me to contact the bus
company.”
Xanthis said the district is working
with East End to resolve the bus delays.
“Absolutely we want to address this and
certainly some of those complaints are
under review as we speak,” he noted. “Our
new Superintendent for Business Carleen
Millsaps, in the two months she’s been
here, a lot of her time has been dedicated
to trying to clean up some of the issues
in transportation. She meets once a week
with the owners of the company about the
issues. So we’re trying our best to resolve
these issues. I will say that since she’s
(Millsaps) been here, even though we’re
not anywhere close to where we want
to be, but communication has improved.
Customer service has to improve a lot
more, but I think we’re going in the right
direction.”
“ I said to the board
tonight that after a
meeting filled with a lot
of tension, even during
the meeting, tonight was
a much better night for
the district. They showed
themselves to be ready to
put that stuff behind them
and move on for the good
of the district, but more so
for the good of the kids.”
JOHN XANTHIS
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
Public referendum
The board voted 6-0 during its session
last week to hold a public hearing at its
next meeting on Feb. 25 to potentially pass
a resolution that would allow the CSArch
architectural firm to begin conducting
the groundwork for a potential public
referendum project that would see the
district renovate the High School-Middle
School complex parking lot. The board
is examining a proposal that would also
include pool dehumidification at the
joint school site, new lighting at the high
school auditorium and a new bathroom/
concession facility near the football field.
During last week’s session, CSArch gave
the board a base estimate of $7,485,707 for
the proposed project. Additional options
for projects with price tags of $15 million,
$20 million and $25 million were also
discussed. For the potential $7.4 million
project, taxes would increase $12.38
per $100,000 of assessed value for local
homes if the taxpayers were to eventually
approve the project if it goes up for a
referendum vote.
At the board’s next meeting, they
will consider passing a resolution for
the intent to declare lead agency on the
project, which would allow CSArch to
get the ball rolling on the early steps of a
project. The board has not yet approved a
referendum with a specific price tag, and
the administration is expected to bring a
recommendation on the project size to the
next session. “You’re not tied to that, what
it gets us putting together is everything
required to go through the SEQR (State
Environmental Quality Review) process,”
Thomas Ritzenthaler of CSArch replied
to a question from Conklin about the
board being locked into a specific number
for the project. The firm would complete
the SEQR process while the board still has
discretion on the scope of any proposed
referendum.
Xanthis has urged the board to
move forward with a potential project
to renovate the high school parking lot
before the New York State Department of
Transportation begins its work on Route
17K to install traffic lights at the school
complex.
“My hope would be that after the budget
vote, if we have a positive budget vote,
then we can say that everything’s been
done and see what we want to bring to the
public,” he said. “We have to ask what’s
the dollar number they could support at
this time? Then we hope we could bring
something by the early part of July. I’m
not sure we can get the vote by July, but
the whole idea is to get the work started
in the summer of 2020, but it’s going to be
tight. If we push it back to the fall or next
November, then we’d lose another year.
That’s why I think it’s so critical to do, if
nothing else, the minimum.”
The superintendent said the district
would like to establish indoor bathrooms
by
the field, replacing
the portable
toilets
ATTENTION
STUDENTS
& PARENTS
that are currently used. “We really need
to have restroom facilities out there,”
Xanthis said. “It would also be nice to
have a concession stand where we have
running water and some of the things
where it would be easier for people to do
fundraising, because that’s really what
the key is.”
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