Declining District Enrollments: Congers School Will Stay Closed

The fiscally responsible thing to do given declining enrollments, budget woes and a property tax cap in the Clarkstown school district is to close one of its elementary schools, officials have said.

On Thursday night, the Board of Education announced what many in the district had already suspected—and many had feared. Congers School was the choice, because it is already closed for repairs, its pupils already placed in other nearby elementary schools.

According to The Journal News, Superintendent J. Thomas Morton told a roomful of district residents that the choice would minimize disruption.

TJN reporter Mareesa Nicosia wrote that Congers parents were furious and bitter, particularly about the fact that the issue had been so drawn out.

For nearly two years, discussion among district residents has been heated. Congers was closed due to structural damage in 2013. A long, passionate campaign by the Congers community led to a districtwide referendum on whether to spend $6.5 million to repair the school or keep it closed. Its supporters won with a massive neighborhood turnout which overwhelmed the predominantly negative votes in the rest of the district.

The district came up with plans and got approval from the state Education Department, yet work lagged.

Since the fall, residents and board members have had a heated discussion about a new report that describes steeply declining enrollments and school buildings at half-capacity. Rumors about the elementary schools being considered for closure have been rife.

Local parent and blogger Phil Leiter has criticized the administration’s approach, saying it is shortsighted about the district’s financial problems and also has created the current ugly atmosphere:

the anxiety, fear and anger that has built up among Congers residents since August 2013 to spread rapidly to the communities surrounding Strawtown, Little Tor and beyond. This worsening division among Clarkstown residents is the direct result of the lack of public information, the BoE’s narrow focus and the Administration’s determination to close an elementary school for a quick expense reduction. They’ve limited the scope of the demographer’s forecast to five years, even though beyond that it is clearly apparent that the most accurate numbers - the ones based on existing enrollments - show that the middle and high school populations will plummet as elementary populations level out and rise. The District’s current financial issues will pale compared to the repair needs of these buildings and their underutilization in five years or less.

Read the demographer’s report here.

Read about the accuracy of the demographer’s reports here.

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