Nyack Schools May Launch Citizens Advisory Group

At Tuesday’s Nyack School Board meeting, Superintendent Jim Montesano requested the board establish a citizens advisory committee.

“The intent of this committee is to … look at the schools’ facilities and the conditions of the facilities,” he said. “This began with a  bond referendum that …  was defeated in 2007 in which the board looked at the life cycles of a number of our systems, things like electrical systems, fire alarm systems, roofing of our schools.”

This committee will review the life span of certain school assets, including technology which needs updating.

“Hopefully to consider, in the not too distance future, adding some form of a 1-to-1  technology for our students to enhance overall instruction,” said Montesano, adding that bandwidth needed to be looked at as well. “Our operational budget is somewhat limited for our needs in our future.”

A request will be put out to the entire community and Montesano’s hope is to generate interest from various aspects of the community, including individuals with strong interest and/or talent at looking at overall facilities “that will work with an architect … to formulate a needs assessment of where we are and what our needs are … so we’re not in the position that we have a roof that will fail on us and we won’t be able to finance those needs.

The committee will have a “defined area of time commitment” and provide a report to the board at possibly the February meeting.

“I think having a citizens advisory committee is a critical component to helping the community understand what our infrastructure needs are,” said Dan Juechter, school board member.