Say goodbye to former Lewisboro Elementary

The former Lewisboro Elementary School. RECORDER FILE PHOTO

By JEFF MORRIS 

The former Lewisboro Elementary School campus cannot remain open past Aug. 26.

That was the immediate bottom line presented at the Board of Education’s June 4 meeting, as the district began soliciting community input on future options. The deadline led to Lewisboro Town Supervisor Tony Gonçalves making a plea for extension of the town police’s occupancy agreement with the district.

Superintendent Raymond Blanch provided a quick review of where things stand with the former school building, as a consequence of the failure of the district’s bond proposition for its reconstruction as a pre-kindergarten and community center.

Blanch said the Facilities Committee had met earlier in the week with H2M, the architectural firm that had developed plans for the facility, and had the opportunity to review the Building and Conditions Survey that was already prepared and sent to the state in March. He said they are preparing a presentation for the next board meeting.

The basic facts presented are that, as determined by engineers last fall, the building cannot remain occupied and that campus cannot remain open beyond August 2026, due to critical facility and safety considerations. The most recent building assessment categorized the school as “failing” and with ongoing safety risks that make continued occupancy untenable without significant intervention. 

“With a failing designation, the idea of a certificate of occupancy is not a reality, as well as having insurance paid on that,” he said.

Blanch noted critical infrastructure in the building, which has not been occupied as a school since 2014, has exceeded serviceable life, compounding risk and liability. He said existing utility systems are neither efficient nor reliably operable for ongoing use, and the district has ongoing responsibility for the maintenance and security of the Lewisboro Elementary School property.

The right decision

Blanch pointed out that the district made the determination “a decade-plus ago” to take the campus offline, and “to not put, not a few dollars in, but hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars to make this up along the way.” 

He said though he was not here at the time, he would concur it was the right decision. “We have no children in that campus.”

According to Blanch, had the proposition passed, the district would still have had to close the campus, but that would have been to begin construction in September, for which some site preparation would have already begun. He said they are no longer able to “go ahead and sustain systems that perhaps if we would have been able to pass that bond, we would have said, ‘oh, we can go ahead and make those adjustments;”’ that they have “no funds to be able to go back and make those changes in that building to make it work right now.”

As a result, they have no choice but to completely fence it in and shut it down.

Blanch said if a major system went down in any of the five active schools, they could use funds from reserves for repairs, but “we have no funds that go over to a campus that we closed over a decade ago to say now we’re going to put dollars in a building where we have no children.”

Blanch also noted that because of the precarious condition of the building, the district has been leasing space to the town on a month-by-month basis for the past two and a half years, rather than a long-term lease. He said they had spoken with Mike Lavoie, who is in charge of Operations and Maintenance, about the possibility of allowing the police department to remain where it is, since that is essentially an annex that was originally a modular classroom, but he did not know if it was possible for it to be considered a separate building. 

A complication is that the State Education Department has higher standards for building occupancy, and according to Lavoie, a new code of standards was just released that is “quite dense.” 

Lisa Herlihy, the assistant superintendent for business, confirmed they had been trying to be flexible and extend the town’s time in the modular section, “but that is outside of our control.”

Blanch further noted, “even if we were able to keep that modular open on the campus, there would still not be water available — we’re going over there now and feeding the system, and we just don’t have the resources to continue to do that.”

Gonçalves speaks

During public comment, the Lewisboro town supervisor came to the podium and reiterated that the town had been occupying space on a month-to-month basis. He said the town had purchased a building, and would be moving its departments out by Sept. 1 — but needed more time for the police. 

Gonçalves said there had been discussions going back to last year, and in the first week of March this year he was told that the police could have until August 2027.

“Yesterday, we had a follow-up meeting and that’s when I was told that that’s not possible,” he said.

Though the town has contracted with an architect to design a new police headquarters, and is going through site planning, Gonçalves said that is going to take some time; even with a fast-track process, the new building will not be ready until August of next year.

“Now with this we’re in a bind,” he said.

Gonçalves said the town was willing to take on utilities, bring in its own water and electric service, and detach the structure from the rest of the building, because “we don’t have a place for PD at this point. There isn’t commercial space in Lewisboro.” He asked the board to consider his request, noting he’d been in conversations with Blanch and Herlihy, the town has had a good relationship with the district over the years, and he wants to continue their partnership. 

Beth Uretsky of Goldens Bridge also spoke, and questioned Blanch’s assertion that the building has been unoccupied for 10 years, which contributed to the deterioration of infrastructure. 

“Obviously it has been used, right?” she said, referencing the town departments Gonçalves had mentioned, and that the recreation department and town camp had used it as well. “So the question is, if it has been used — although yes, I understand it was not used for students — why wasn’t it maintained at a minimum this entire time?” 

She also wanted to know what happened to the reserves that were in place for LES at the time it was shut down.

Blanch later responded.

“The reality is that the construction cost, if we go back to when this campus closed, from where they are at today, escalation costs are conservatively at a 60% increase,” he said. 

Capital reserve abilities have not increased 60% over that time frame, and with the amount of money available, “the reality is the children would not be in that school.” And, he added, there is a 4% limit on what can be put aside for undesignated reserves.

The path forward

Blanch credited Lavoie and his team with managing to take parts of the building offline and redirecting system components to “bring a building that was meant for over 500 children to be kind of down to a smaller piece where it could work for a handful of spaces.” 

As noted by Blanch, the universal pre-K mandate now is state law, and the district has to determine how it is going to move forward, both on pre-K and the future of LES. The process now in place is called “LES Path Forward.”

During June, a community survey is being distributed to over 14,000 addresses, regarding the May proposition results, and the district will release a pre-K Request For Information for those interested in participating in the coming universal pre-K, which will start in fall 2028. Blanch said it will be nonbinding and not result in any contracts being awarded, but will provide information.

On July 30, a Community Feedback and Fiscal Analysis Report will be submitted to the board summarizing themes, concerns, priorities, and factors influencing the voters’ decision. In addition, the board will receive a related fiscal impact and pre-K RFI summary.

On Aug. 27, the board will determine next steps for the campus based on community input, facility condition and financial analysis. And in September, the district will implement the direction identified by the board; the campus will close, and decommissioning of the building will begin, encompassing site security, utility shutdown and winterization.