KLSD voters decide Tuesday on revamped Early Childhood Center

Cost comparisons provided by the school district of the original May proposal, and the revised proposal. Courtesy of KLSD

By JEFF MORRIS 

While most attention has been focused on the approaching Nov. 3 election, voters in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District will decide Tuesday, Oct. 20, on a revised bond proposition for the former Lewisboro Elementary School.

The district is proposing to issue $19.95 million in bonds to finance what is now deemed an Early Childhood Center, which would demolish 40% of the existing LES building while upgrading the rest into a facility that can accommodate the free universal pre-kindergarten program that all districts have a state mandate to provide by 2028.

The proposal is a slimmed-down version of the original plan, which was defeated by a 22-vote margin in May. The district originally asked to spend $24.5 million on a plan that would have included a community center. Surveys and focus groups conducted in the months that followed the defeat concluded most opposition was to the community center component, while there was strong support for universal pre-K.

Simplified floor plan of the proposed Early Childhood Center, showing the designated universal pre-K classrooms in yellow, provision for future transitional/special education rooms outlined in red, and portions of the existing building to be demolished.

Plan revisions

The revised proposal retains only the 2003-vintage gym for community use, while eliminating HVAC upgrades it would have received and a direct structural connection to the rest of the building. It will get a new roof, but architect Niall Washburn has said work on the gym under the new version will cost $895,000 rather than an estimated $3 million that was in the first proposal. Superintendent Raymond Blanch said the district would like to maintain its partnership with the town of Lewisboro, which has rented the gym for recreational programs.

Among the features included under the revised plan is an area in which plumbing will be installed in preparation for future bathrooms, which would support conversion of two remaining spaces in the new center into transitional rooms for special education purposes.

The entire main building will be air-conditioned and get a new roof and other structural improvements. Its key components remain eight large classrooms with bathrooms, which are requirements under state guidelines for pre-K facilities. The district maintains that such requirements make the existing former LES an ideal location for the pre-K program, whereas suggestions that other elementary schools and the middle school could be reconfigured to accommodate pre-K would require extensive, disruptive construction, and that work, combined with the need to demolish LES, would be cost prohibitive.

Building conditions

Lewisboro Elementary School has been closed since 2014, and while the district had been renting out portions, primarily to the town, it performed only necessary maintenance to allow it to remain habitable, and not to the level that would have been required under New York State Education Department regulations to allow it to be occupied as a school. The conditions came to a head earlier this year, when it was revealed that engineers had determined last fall that the building was “failing.” A Building and Conditions Survey that was sent to the state in March said the campus could not remain open beyond August due to critical facility and safety considerations. The town has since moved its offices elsewhere.

Questions and answers

Questioning of the district’s assertions and rationale for the bond proposal remain. Since holding a Q&A session Sept. 9, the district has continued to maintain a Q&A page on its website, responding to questions as they are submitted. Many of the questions were already addressed at earlier meetings. Among recent posts, one asked if there was a competitive bidding process for the project. The district responded that the project has not yet gone to bid, which will only happen if the bond is approved and the State Education Department reviews the plans. It said the $19.95 million figure was a combination of cost estimates from H2M Architects and Triton Construction.

Another question asked whether, if the vote fails and Katonah preschools are selected to be KLSD universal pre-K providers, families already attending these Katonah preschools will be able to stay there as pre-K students. The district replied it cannot guarantee that children enrolled in a preschool’s 3-year-old program will be able to remain there for KLSD pre-K. It said the Request for Information responses from local preschools showed they do not collectively have enough seats to serve all eligible KLSD 4-year-olds, and if the bond does not pass, KLSD will seek preschool partners both within and outside the district.

Again supposing that the vote fails, a question asked whether the district would consider reopening LES as an elementary school, redistricting and putting UPK in the zoned elementary schools. The answer was an unequivocal “no.” “There are not enough students in the district to warrant reopening LES as a fourth elementary school,” was the reply. “Additionally, it would be cost-prohibitive to repair and reopen LES as K-5 school while also renovating existing elementary schools to accommodate pre-K.”

Changing position

In July, Lewisboro Town Board member Richard Sklarin, who had led opposition to the original bond proposal, indicated during a Board of Education meeting that he was satisfied with the direction now being taken to find a “more financially cost-effective way” to implement universal pre-K.

He subsequently posted a video on social media that he called “Why you should support the revised KLSD bond proposal on Oct. 20.” He gave three reasons: the $4.55 million reduction, which he said was “not nothing”; maintaining use of the gym for the community; and that universal pre-K is now the law. He challenged those who still say there should be a less costly alternative to provide pre-K to come up with one.

In order to vote in the Oct. 20 referendum, voters must be residents of the Katonah-Lewisboro School District. The district encompasses all of the town of Lewisboro, but it also includes the hamlet of Katonah in the town of Bedford, as well as small sections of North Salem and Pound Ridge. Eligible voters should have already received postcards informing them where to vote.