Pelham Board Hopes To Buy House Behind Colonial School

PELHAM, NY — Pelham school officials want to buy the house that's basically in the Colonial School's back yard. Its yard would give the school more playground and green space and the building itself could become offices for administrators moved out of Pelham Memorial High School to make more classrooms.

The Board of Education voted unanimously on Wednesday to enter into a contract for purchase of the property, at 314 Pelhamdale Ave. The purchase of the property is subject to approval by Pelham voters and a special referendum vote is planned for June 18.

Playground and green space for Colonial School is now very limited.

Also, the existing house could reduce the need to rent offices for administrators who vacated their space in the high school, where the district's administrative offices are located.

The contract stipulates a purchase price of $1.1 million for the property contingent on voter approval on June 18.

The Board plans to fund the purchase using undesignated reserve funds, meaning that the acquisition would be tax neutral to residents. No borrowing is necessary, therefore no additional taxes would be levied for this purchase of property.

“Throughout the bond process last year, the Board identified a number of issues with respect to
Colonial School, including a lack of outdoor space and the inability to expand the building to
absorb increasing future enrollment if we need to,” said Board of Education President Sue
Bratone Childs. “Unfortunately there is very little that can be done to resolve these issues due to
the ‘landlocked’ nature of Colonial School. The opportunity to purchase contiguous property is
rare and as a Board we feel that doing so is a viable way to create opportunities to address
some of those issues in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Importantly, moving District
offices into the existing house would allow us to repurpose funds currently allocated for rental
office space to meet other facilities needs within the district.”

While the Board had hoped to include the property acquisition proposition on the same ballot as
the May 21 budget vote and school board member election, the timing of the negotiations did not
allow for that to happen, resulting in the need for the June 18 special election.

“Acquiring property contiguous to Colonial School is something that has been on the District’s
radar for some time,” said Dr. Cheryl Champ, superintendent of schools. “Given the challenges
facing the school with regard to the physical plant, and our already established plans to seek
office space outside of the high school, we feel that this is a unique opportunity to address
several identified issues at one time. By using undesignated reserves to purchase the property,
we are able to acquire an important asset without adding to the tax burden already facing our
residents while ensuring that our District remains in a strong fiscal position.”

Click to Like Pelham Patch on Facebook.