Students, parents say no to reopening DV campus

Petitions presented amid calls for civility

By FRITZ MAYER

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Parents, students and teachers don’t want the Delaware Valley campus to be reopened. That was the message offered by the vast majority of speakers during the public comment period at the board meeting of the Sullivan West Central School District on March 15.

Students Kristen Neiman and Randy Grimm presented the board with a petition that was signed by 438 students urging that the board not reopen the Delaware Valley facility. Grimm also admonished the board for considering the closure of the school in Lake Huntington, although the board has said that is not a consideration for the next school year.

A newly formed parents group presented a second petition. The group called Sullivan West Citizens Advocating Responsible Education and Spending (CARES) presented the board with a petition with 1,381 signatures. The petition called for maintaining “only the two currently operating campusesūthe elementary school campus in Jeffersonville and the junior/senior high school campusūas the best use of Sullivan West educational facilities.”

A common theme among the speakers at the meeting was that the $1.7 million needed to reopen Delaware Valley would be better spent on reinstating programs that have been cut from the curriculum in the past two years because of tight budgets. Specifically, speakers mentioned courses in business, home economics and health that needed more funding.

Several parents and teachers, who said they initially opposed the closure of the Delaware Valley and Narrowsburg schools, said they had now accepted the closures and urged that the schools not be reopened. They said that elementary students are offered better educational opportunities when they are all in one place, where teachers and students can exchange ideas and information.

The Narrowsburg School and the Delaware Valley School were closed in August 2005 because of budget considerations.

On the other side of the debate, one resident from Long Eddy spoke in favor of reopening Delaware Valley, but said residents should be able to vote on the matter, and a teacher said that Delaware Valley should be used to provide more space for pre-kindergarten classes.

Several speakers also called for the matter to be put to a referendum. The board has not yet decided whether the new budget will include the cost of opening Delaware Valley, but district residents will have a chance to vote on the budget on May 15.

Another matter addressed by multiple speakers was the state-wide reputation the school has gained because of its fractious meetings and negative reports in the media. Teacher Rose Joyce Turner noted that the district is currently seeking a superintendent to replace Alan Derry, who is leaving at the end of the year.

She asked, “Who are we going to get to walk into this hornet’s nest?”

Several other speakers echoed this sentiment, while at the same time remarking that the new “state-of-the-art” high school offered very good educational opportunities.

School board president Arthur Norden responded to the public comments by saying that of the board “our biggest job is to protect your assets,” and by getting information about the buildings and the various options, which was what the board is doing.

In a subsequent interview Norden said that the board would not be coaxed into making decisions based on what the students want, and added that he thought they had been exploited by others with an agenda.

At the meeting, Derry said that it’s true that people do know about this school throughout the state, and that he was envious of the person who will take his place. “The difficult decisions have been made; the heavy lifting has been done,” he said. “My successor will inherit a fine school district with exceptional programs.”