Narrowsburg parents get answers

By KIMBERLY M. WEYANDT

NARROWSBURG, NY — The seats were filled and the chairs surrounded as members of the community gave up a Tuesday night with their families to sit in the gym of the Narrowsburg elementary school on February 15. It was parent night and Sullivan West Superintendent Alan Derry took the center of the floor to explain the school’s financial situation and touch on what it means for the budget this year.

“If we moved ahead into next year as is, we would see a tax hike of 35 percent,” said Derry. But many residents wanted to know how this could happen.

“In the merger of the district a number of things occurred,” Derry said. “The biggest is probably the new high school in Lake Huntington; this is also the first year we’re making a mortgage payment,” he said. Sullivan West will cough up somewhere close to four million dollars this year for the mortgage alone.

“The money we had in excess in the past is gone and this year we’re hitting the full brunt of what that means,” Derry said.

In the first five years, the new district receives an additional 40 percent operating aid over and above what the districts would have received had they chosen not to merge. In the sixth year the 40 percent is reduced by four percent a year for the next nine years, until in the 15th year it is completely discontinued.”

What this means is that from this year forward the additional revenue the school has been receiving will gradually decline.

“The number of students in attendance is going down, which means we get less operating money from the state,” said Derry.

“And it looks like the numbers are going to continue to drop,” he said.

Addressing the community, Derry said, “So the question is what do we do, where do we go?”

It was the universal question running through everyone’s mind, and while everyone had ideas, no one had an answer. Derry has expressed this reality at the board meetings, at the community meetings, and now in a meeting with parents in hopes of putting everyone on the same page.

But would Narrowsburg be closed?

“Let’s say we close this school,” said Dawn Curreri in a hypothetical question, “what happens to the six million we put into the building?” she asked.

“Nothing, we’d still have to pay for it,” said Derry.

“And if we sold the building?

“We’d still have to pay for it,” said Derry.

“This building would never sell for six million dollars,” said Curreri, “I’m a realtor.”

Whipping out some figures she had crunched before leaving her office that day, Curreri shared some numbers about the substantial numbers of new homes coming into the Narrowsburg area.

“If we close any of these schools who do you think will be moving into this district?” asked Curreri.

“There is no intention to close any school,” Derry replied.

Although the theory is that a substantial amount of money could be saved by closing one of the buildings, Derry said it is a “mis-rumor to think you can close schools and save money.”

“We could close Narrowsburg or we could close Jeff, but what is more likely to happen is a balancing of classes and the reduction of programs at the junior high and high school level,” said Derry.

“The good news is that what we would look to do is balance the student teacher ratio, the bad news is that we can’t do this by staying in the same schools, we’re looking at redistricting,” he said.

According to Derry, strategically, redistricting makes the most sense right now. Sullivan County is looking at substantial growth in the future due to the casino issue. Although how many casinos will be built is yet to be determined, Derry is sure that growth is inevitable.

“It’s just a matter of holding on until then,” said Derry. “We want to maintain the integrity of the district and attract new students.”

“This is just the first hurdle. We’ll need to tighten our belts and try to attract new students and then we can build ourselves up again,” said Derry, “There is a tomorrow.”

And what will tomorrow bring for Sullivan West?

If Derry gets his way, “a showcase program to attract young families, because generating more students will generate more money.”