Pelham Elementary School Reconfiguration Plan Off the Table for 2012-2013

Plans to reconfigure the elementary schools in Pelham appear to be on the back burner for now.

The Pelham school board instructed schools Superintendent Dennis Lauro to not focus on the controversial reconfiguration plan as he works on crafting his budget proposal for the 2012-2013 school year during Monday’s school board meeting.

“I don’t think we have enough benefit from it...educationally to counterbalance the lack of savings that we would hope that maybe it could’ve provided,” Douglas Hearle, a member of the school board, said during the meeting.

The reconfiguration plan, , would split elementary school students in the district into north/south boundaries  Colonial Elementary School  would hold grades K-2 and get paired with Hutchinson, which would hold grades 3-5. Siwanoy would hold grades K-2 and get paired Prospect Hill Elementary School, which would hold grades 3-5.

Elementary school students are now assigned to building based on the neighborhoods they live in.

District officials conducted a feasibility on restructuring the elementary schools due to increased financial constraints that have been brought on by the state’s 2 percent property tax cap. Lauro has said the the district will need to make $1.8 million in cuts in order to comply with the tax cap.

The reconfiguration, if implemented, would result in the district saving about $400,000 during the 2012-2013 school year. Lauro said the district has already zeroed in on about $700,000 personnel related in cuts to next year’s budget that will be made regardless of what elementary school configuration is used next year.

But the plan has come who have concerns over the impact the proposal would have on traffic, the transportation and safety of students and property values in the town. Other parents also complained that the educational benefits associated with the reconfiguration aren’t apparent and needed to be explained more thoroughly.

Will Cavanagh, another member of the school board, said the reconfiguration is a decent idea and he believes there can be educational benefits from it. But he believes the board needs to fully go through the all the ramifications associated with the proposal before making a decision.

“It’s such change to the community that I think something that we should separate it from the budget process and consider over a much longer period of time,” Cavanaugh said.

Board Member Peggy O’Leary agreed.

“I think that the work on something like this should take place not over the next six weeks, but rather over the next six to nine months,” O’Leary said. “Anything that we do should include representatives from the district and also representative for people who don’t have children in the district.”

Lauro is scheduled to present his preliminary budget proposal to the public during the Feb. 27 school board meeting.