The plan
Contrary to some reports within the community, the New Paltz district does have a specific plan. Details are itemized on the district website (newpaltz.k12.ny.us) and visuals are available through an informative video.
Unlike the last capital project proposal in New Paltz that went down in 2010, this project will involve work at all four schools and will not involve any relocation of students out of their buildings. A great deal of the work needs to be done at the middle school, which is the oldest facility in the district and the most degraded and lacking in space.
A significant portion of the proposed project has to do with replacing failing, outdated systems and infrastructures and making improvements to indoor air quality, both for the health and safety of students and staff as well as to meet current required codes. The tour of the middle school revealed heating, cooling and ventilation systems throughout the facility insufficient for the spaces they’re used in, and some classrooms were described as being “unbearably hot” with radiators dangerously hot to the touch. Random air sampling is done throughout the year to ensure that the air quality is safe, said Superintendent Rice, but there is mold evident, and antiquated airflow systems means that scheduling for students has to be done based on which children have asthma and allergies and require air-filtered rooms.
Safety issues abound, including electrical panels so old the breakers intended to trip in an emergency are being used as on/off switches. Wiring and switches date to the 1970s, and loose and cracked masonry on the exterior threatens the integrity of the entire structure.
Obsolescence and deterioration are everywhere one looks. Replacement parts are unavailable for kitchen equipment that dates to the 1950s and the roof installed in 1993 has already outlived its 20-year life. A roof leak in the gymnasium is being caught in a tarp and channeled into a garden hose. Exterior walls have rotted, with the underlying concrete reduced to pebbles, and original plumbing, water supply and steam lines along with sanitary waste systems have deteriorated to the point of alarm, with all systems operating past their useful lives; some are more than 50 years old.
Classrooms are sorely lacking in adequate space and storage and badly laid out; the 120-member band practices next door to sixth grade social studies classes and across a small courtyard from other classrooms attempting to study. The auditorium, used as chorus room, a second gym and for indoor recess, is inadequately sized with insufficient ventilation for the amount of students it serves. The cafeteria is too small, and because there’s no storage in the building, students perch on wrestling mats stored in the room because there’s no other place to put them. The “home and careers” classroom was originally designed for about a dozen students but now houses a mandated course with upwards of 30 students in the space. Even the nurse’s office is too small, with no privacy for students or for staff to make sensitive phone calls to parents.
There is no ADA compliance for the handicapped — which affects students temporarily on crutches as well as the permanently disabled — and a too-steep ramp and access to all classrooms at the middle school needs to be addressed.
And the school is not equipped with updated technology necessary to accommodate what’s coming down the road with federal mandates for testing, said Superintendent Rice. Many of the problems have not been addressed in the past because the district was unable to pass a capital project, she said. The problems are not due to a lack of maintenance, she added, but because so much of the facility has outlived its useful life.
The facilities have been kept going piecemeal style, but if a capital project doesn’t enable the district to take care of the existing problems, said Profaci, the repairs will have to come out of the operating budget, “and we have zero reserves. We’d have to cut into educational programs at that point.”
A presentation on the project by the Board of Education’s Facilities Committee will be held at the district office at Lenape Elementary School on Eugene L. Brown Drive on Wednesday, October 22 at 6 p.m. Absentee ballots are available on the district website and must be received by the district clerk either seven days before the vote if mailed to the voter or the day before the vote if the ballot is picked up in person. All absentee ballots must be received by no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28.
For more information, visit www.newpaltz.k12.ny.us.
