Commentary

E- mail between concerned Sullivan West School District parents
( starts at the bottom before line )

Carol,

You are more than welcome to share my opinion and it can be posted on that website as well. I haven't read that site so if you have a chance please let me know the address so I can also read along.

Thank you,

Jeannette Klug

Carol Wingert wrote:

Hey Jeannette,

Thanks for taking the time to respond, that's the whole idea of this survey, to get people to voice their opinions. I just put it in both papers for folks to respond to also, I'm hoping for a very high response rate so that we can present this to the board of Ed.

I was wondering if you would be willing to share your statements on a webpage hosted by Geoff Gangel, I could e-mail it to him and then he'd put it up with other comments he has on there. We are trying to get the folks from Jeff see our point of view, they don't have to live it, so they don't feel it like we do. Your comments are very valuable and need to be shared.

Let me know,

Thanks,

Carol

-------Original Message-------

From: Jeannette Grieco-Klug

Date: 10/1/2007 11:51:21 PM

To: Carol Wingert

Subject: Re: Poll results

Hi Carol,

A is not an option for me or my children because then the Jr. and Sr. high kids would have to go to Jeffersonville until graduation and it is a pain in the ass and too far. It is exactly 18 miles from my driveway to the JY driveway and takes at least 30 minutes by car.

B is not an option unless the high school stayed a Jr. and Sr. high for the same reason listed above. I will never want my kids in JY again!!

C is my choice if we can't have D. I know I am your first but as I said earlier...I don't want my kids in JY ever!!! Narrowsburg is not represented there and never will be b/c no matter what we do...we will never have the numbers.

D would be a choice as long as we returned to K-12 as before, however, I don't believe that this is an option because of provisions in the merger that forever would prevent this.

I think it is very sad that because these schools are so far away, my kids will never be able to participate in anything that takes place after school hours because we work and can never go there and pick up at the required times. I also think it was unfair that the Narrowsburg students missed the opportunity to play musical instruments before our building closed while those other students entered at the age and time they should have and I can't afford private lessons like some Narrowsburg parents did before all the kids went to one elementary school. It certainly continues to feel like discrimination to me b/c as long as we are from the Narrowsburg area our kids suffer the most unless they have a stay at home parent and the money for the parent to drive all over the county so their children can actually be a part of Sullivan West.

I hope you understand my reasons listed above and if not at least respect my opinion and the reason I have it. I can honestly say that after my children graduate I don't care what they choose to do with the school. It is my hope that the residents of Narrowsburg will not continue to suffer by the hands of those in Jeffersonville just b/c they have larger numbers. I would love for our building to be K-12 once again. I think too many people don't realize that the maximum class size is now supposed to be 25 and that there are many teachers who say they wish it was less...funny b/c I recall them complaining about large classes. There haven't been many graduating classes from Narrowsburg higher. We had 30/31 in 1988 and I think in 1987 they also had close to that. I never thought we were overcrowded when I was a student.

So C is my vote unless we can have D...at least until my kids are out. Sorry. I will vote according to this but always with my budget in mind b/c the tax hikes of the past were excessive and I don't want another board that just likes to spend money in the name of education. To me education is not determined by the number of elective classes available.

I hope this doesn't mean I will not receive any more email. I like the information that is shared with me and I like to make an informed vote each time.

Jeannette Klug

Carol Wingert wrote:

Hello, I wanted to report back to you the results of my e-mail survey, if this is the first time you are hearing about it, I apologize, I'm refining my e-mail list. You can still send me your vote, I will keep it going for another couple of weeks. Just put down how many legal voters are in your household and what their votes would be, no names are necessary and your opinions will be kept confidential.

AND VOTE THIS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2 This is basically our last chance to make a change.

The results are as follows:

A) Closing the high school and opening both NB & DV-remain Sullivan West (6) (3 of these people also said they would vote for this, but would prefer option D-I counted them in both A & D votes)

B) Keeping the high school open and opening one or both buildings (NB & DV)-remain SW (4)

C) Leaving things the way they are right now, no change (0), yes that's a big FAT ZERO!

D) De-merging and returning to NB, DV and JY (17)

People were very adamant in their statements, especially when it came to option C. I really wish I could e-mail the entire district and poll everyone. I think the school board should........maybe it would give them the direction they so desperately need. Keep forwarding this to folks, I'll keep a running total for a while.

The CARES (Citizens Advocating Rickety Educational Structures) group has won another election. Well, the voters of the Sullivan West School District have spoken and the message is clear: “We don’t care if the Lake Huntington building is unsafe and that we got ripped off to build it.” Over 800 district voters who voted in the last election were either so disgusted or apathetic that they did not come out for this year’s festivities. Those who did come out seem to believe that if we have leadership that doesn’t bring problems to light, then the problems don’t exist.

Richard Sandler and Angela Daley have proven down through the years that they are more concerned with having the monolithic building at Lake Huntington or “the Mistake by the Lake,” as many locals call it, than they are with protecting taxpayers and students from an unneeded, sub-standard building that has had to have beams shored up on more than one occasion in it’s brief 4-year history. Even Ex-Superintendent Alan Derry, a noted friend of the CARES group, admitted that there is probably an underground spring bubbling beneath its foundation.

It is hard to imagine that the CARES candidates are perverse enough that they would knowingly place students in a dangerous building, but it is evident from their past actions that they are not curious enough to even investigate any information that conflicts with their misbegotten notion that the Lake Huntington Building is a perfect educational facility. Down through the history of the project, every time that they have been confronted with facts about potential problems with the building or the site they have attacked either: a) the press for sensationalizing the situation, b) those who have brought the information to them or c) engineers and laborers who worked on the site. They have never owned up to bad decisions they made such as: a) having the Superintendent act as “clerk of the works,” for the project, b) opening the unfinished building early-even before the parking lots were completed and c) “value engineering,” out many of the features that voters expected to see in the new building including air conditioning, pitched roofs and sprinkler systems.

So thanks to this vote, for at least another year, we will have the distinct pleasure of hearing Angela’s familiar refrains when confronted with bad news resulting from poor Board decisions, “I don’t remember ever being told that,” “The Board never voted on that,” and my personal favorite, “The Superintendent tells us that everything is fine.” Let’s just pray that we aren’t hearing these statements coming from her in the wake of some catastrophic event that should have been avoided.

Shawn Colin Bailey SR.

Mileses, New York

Geoffrey Gangel for Sullivan West School Board

My name is Geoffrey Gangel. I'm 57 years old and married to the love of my life Wanda. Wanda and I are the proud parents of Jenna our 16-year-old daughter, who attends Sullivan West high school. Wanda and I formerly resided on long Island, where we ran a silk screen-printing business. We bought a house in Narrowsburg in 1997, because we fell in love with the town and feel a deep connection with the people of this river community. I became a Narrowsburg school bus driver and now drive Narrowsburg children to the Jeff-Young elementary school. This is in addition to an art and graphics business Wanda I operate. I have also set up an open forum for residents of the Sullivan West school district on my website at www.artbypolygon.com and invite your input.
It is because of my feeling of connection with the people of this area that I've decided to run for a position on the Sullivan West school board. I feel most people in this area have been blindsided by the past performance of the school boards representing the merged communities. The monumental mistakes that were made, the denial and the stubborn persistence to continue without consideration of public needs and input, the lack of transparency and effective communication are without parallel in my experience. What's more it seems that people in their shock and disbelief at the outcome of the merge have in their disorientation re-elected many of the same people who have shepherded us into this mess. The school system should be a source of pride and a binding force in the community, a symbol of a long-term vitality; this is not the case now and needs to be fixed.

Here are a few basic questions that everyone who has students in the schools or pays taxes in the Sullivan West school district should be asking themselves.
Do we want the same people on the board that decided we could magically afford a new school, and it's running expenses. When we could barely afford the ones we had in the first place?
Do we want people who are responsible for monstrous budget excesses from hard-earned tax dollars in control of spending and budgets?

Do we trust the judgment of people who were warned about the contractor to build the school and were advised of problems with the school, yet told us everything was okay.
Do they have a plan B? I asked this question quite some time ago at a board meeting, referencing it to the rumor that the building is sinking and dangerously close to a limit, which would require closing the school, there was no reply. I've heard rumors of members of the present board who would like to sell the schools that I would keep as a plan B.
It is sad that I have to reference to rumors, but facts seem to be hard to come by and we don't always get straight answers.
In closing, please look at the record, find out who's doing what and get out and vote.

The September 18, 2007 issue of the Democrat features the following quote from Kim Breihof, a parent of a Sullivan West student, in regards to what she maintains is an unsafe bus stop in her area of Jeffersonville, ““We know they may really feel this is safe, but we expect more from our district,” she said. “… We’re asking them in good faith to take a look at what they’ve done.”

Considering the fact that the High School Building has faced known structural problems since it was first built, one has to wonder why anyone would, “expect more from our district.” When the Facilities Needs and Assessments Committee of last year’s Board wanted to take a look at what we’ve done (a course of action that was actually recommended by the Comptroller’s scathing report about the mismanagement of the District) and what we have, they were derided for having some sort of, “ulterior motive.” This committee was badgered and ridiculed by our Former Superintendent, other members of the School Board and by community members. Recent construction events at the High School have shown that there is an absolute necessity for the work that the FNA Committee was trying to accomplish. Here’s hoping that the current School Board majority will put aside its partisan promises from the last election and give the High School building and Ms. Breihof’s concerns the attention that each merits.

posted 9/29/07

In a recent article in the Times-Herald Record, Lisa Layman, speaking as a member of the Sullivan West CARES (Citizens Advocating Rickety Educational Structures) says the following:

"It is definitely not ideal to have a young child on the bus for an hour, but if that child can be offered after-school programs that aren't in the individual districts, that is a positive," Layman said. "A lot of times, the adults seem to lose that. I know that the building seems to have problems. If we close it, I believe we still need to pay our bills."

These statements prove that CARES is clueless about the real problems facing our district. The extended travel creates a problem of equity; many students have to forego involvement in extra-curricular activities because parents cannot work out the logistics of transporting them. Even for those who find a way to travel the distance, other disadvantages rear their ugly heads: inequity in time for completion of homework and decreased family time are creating a caste of second-class citizens in much of the Sullivan West District.

Worst of all, are the safety concerns that have never been adequately addressed by the District. If this faulty concrete is pre-stressed concrete, a study of the process by which such concrete is fashioned should cause even the most ardent building supporter to be concerned for student safety. Pre-stressed concrete is made from cables, pulled taut, with concrete poured around them. If one of those cables were to break under the stress, it wouldn’t just collapse, but rather would snap like a rubber band. The resulting damage would be catastrophic and lethal. Whether we have to pay for the building or not, anyone who truly “CARES” would say that the lives of our children are not for sale at any price.

Nancy Turner

Hankins,

To recap our position, on July 1, 1999, after voting for the third time, Delaware Valley, Jeffersonville -Youngsville, and Narrowsburg Central school districts merged to form the Sullivan West Central school District at Callicoon-Jeffersonville-Youngsville-Narrowsburg. This school district has an approximate land area of 242 mi.². This school district includes most of the towns of Callicoon, Cochecton, Delaware, Fremont, and Tusten and a small portion of Bethel and liberty. There is also a small portion of the town of Hancock, located in Delaware County. The total population is approximately 11,487 persons. For safety, economy and practicality there were originally three schools to serve the residents of this huge area. This arrangement meant reasonable student pickup times, short bus rides, fuel economy. The location of the schools in the communities meant more parental participation in the schools events and student matters. This situation was most critical for the K-6 grades. Parental participation is widely regarded as most important in these formative grades. The reasonable sized classes that were in these community schools were also widely regarded as the best educational situation possible. Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Hilton reiterated this point in the last moments of the September 20 school board meeting.

The board of education was made up of Jeffrey Nobler, president Jerry Triolo, Vice President and board members William Erdmann, K.C. Gam, Richard Lander, Tim E. Lanese, Arthur Norden, and Richard Sandler. Michael Johndrow was superintendent of schools and Keith Menges was business administrator.

The board of education, adopted on May 17, 2001 the issuance of $49,938,453 in serial bonds to pay the costs of the purchase of new property and the construction and reconstruction of school buildings. There was never an assurance that the state appropriation for building aid or other state aid to school districts would be continued in the future. The availability of such aid would always be affected by delays or the adoption of the state budget to further, reduce or eliminate such aid.

The idea monies were being invested in reconstruction of the existing schools comforted many in the now merged school districts. It was assumed our newly renovated and upgraded schools would continue many years into the future. The sudden discovery that it was necessary to close two of our schools in the River communities came as an extraordinary shock. It appears the financial crisis was also a shock and a surprise to the Board of Education. The closing of these schools hurt these River communities and I suspect has had detrimental effects on the lives and scholastic performance of those schoolchildren from our outlying areas. It is my belief that Superintendent Dr. Hilton would make every effort to alleviate such a circumstance if it exists. I believe any school board that we end up with must consider any detrimental effects to our community and the students, then painful or not make things right. I do not know where the board got its financial advice. I do not know which state agencies, they contacted for an analysis of their financial position, and the needs of this school district. It would appear whatever help they got was negligent and incompetent and if they did not seek help what the heck were they thinking.

It is also common knowledge in our area that if you hire a contractor. You hire one that has been recommended or comes from your local area. Almost everyone is aware of the pitfalls and disasters that can happen when you hire an inferior contractor. Interestingly, the board was warned that one of the two contractors they were considering had an abysmal record, despite this he was awarded the contract.

I believe that the merger was a good thing. I believe the big mistake occurred when the Sullivan West school district bought the large high school. The lack of understanding of exactly what the state was going to pay for and the resistance to input from the community led to a very bad decision. Now, the debt service and running expanses are the apparent cause of the closing of the Narrowsburg and the Delaware Valley schools. I believe a concerted effort to restructure the debt should be made, this could be a step towards reopening of the Delaware Valley and Narrowsburg schools for elementary use and abating our tax burden.
The extreme size of the Sullivan West school district makes the busing from the outer edges of the district to the Jefferson elementary school, impractical. Despite promises that this condition would improve there is no way to shrink the district. So many of the families in the outer reaches of our district feel they have been cut off from the full use of the school. Some parents feel they cannot possibly drive to either the elementary school or the high school in a reasonable amount of time to participate in school activities, a de facto loss of services. This feeling of de facto loss of services extends to some of the high school children as well, believing that they cannot participate in after school activities as the travel time makes it prohibitive. Elementary children taking the ride from the outer reaches of the district have to endure very long rides to the school through winding roads and hilly country. As a school bus driver for the Sullivan West school district myself, I have seen some of them arrive at school with what appears to be jet lag. Occasionally they are nauseous or have thrown up on the bus, this is no way for a child to begin a school day.
It is hard to believe anybody could allow the hardships on both the parents and the children that this situation has caused. I have concerns as to achievement levels of the children at the new school. It seems some of the data about the children's current performance has been hard to come by, up till now. The facts about the costs of transportation or the maintenance of the high school building should be easy to come by. Information up until now is vague and confusing as to the costs of reopening the Narrowsburg and Delaware Valley schools for elementary use. I am concerned as to the reason why this information hasn't been made widely and easily available. We are told that they are trying to hold down the taxes and because of lack of money strict budgeting has been in place, yet somehow we have collected a $3 million excess.

There is also the concern of the long-term repercussions of the closing of the schools. It seems like there will be an inevitable decline of families with young children moving into the Narrowsburg and Delaware Valley area and the loss of families with young children already living in these places, at best this will lead to stagnation. It appears Jeffersonville has realized the full potentials and promises of the merger and are unaware of their merger partners problems. It is unlikely that the Jeffersonville alone will produce enough children to fill the school system. The slow decline of enrollment begs the question of how long before the schools are empty or nearly so. There is also the question of the tax burden, it is obvious that things won't be getting better soon. None of this information makes Sullivan West school district sound attractive to the new home buyer, renters and second home owners with children or without.
I believe there are a number of workable solutions. It will be necessary to acknowledge the problems that exist and the school board must make a good faith attempt to fix them. It is wrong that any of the parents and children should suffer or be ignored. There has been a great deal of discussion and speculation that the school board may authorize the sale of the Narrowsburg and Delaware Valley schools, as this would be a clever way to end the discussion about reopening them for elementary school use. It is clear, to anyone who thinks about this for a moment, that such a sale would never recoup the great deal of money that was spent to upgrade these schools and such a shortsighted tactic would box us into an even tighter corner than we are already in. Let's hope that calm thinking and attention to the needs of all the Sullivan West school district's merger partners will be the order of the day and not short sighted tactics that would serve only the few in the short term. At this point, we are starting with a new administrator and a new School board, though this would seem like a clean slate there is still baggage. I am hoping with a public awareness campaign, we can solve these issues and get on track to prosperity and vigorous growth for the whole school district and all its residents.

I was talking to a woman the other day who has a daughter the same age as my son. She was telling me how she had looked at a house to buy up in Long Eddy where I live. I knew the house she had seen and we talked a bit about it's good points and bad points. But then she ended by saying, "But of course it was out of the question because it's so far from the school." This seems to me the whole situation in a nutshell. What people in Youngsville and Jeffersonville and Callicoon Center and maybe even North Branch and Obernburg don't seem to understand. Families with young children will never again move into my town. It's just not a viable option to raise children that far from schools. Not only will young families never again move in, but families with children who live there now are being given a huge incentive to move out. This is a death sentence for my community. Just when Long Eddy had started to percolate with new families, outside forces have wantonly slated us for oblivion. Maybe some people are willing to write off Long Eddy, we've never been that cuddly as a town, but Narrowsburg is a pretty big community to be given this kind of termination notice. That's why there is a tremendous feeling of solidarity between these two towns. And that's why the problem of closed schools doesn't go away. We're not going to disappear without a fight. And none of the other towns in our district would either if they found themselves in the same circumstance. The closing of the schools is a life and death issue for us, but it is also having a negative impact on the district as a whole. The falling test scores have shown that we have been given the short educational straw. Every elementary student in the district has suffered because of these changes. But one of the biggest problems we face is our shrinking student population. How can we afford to create virtual "no growth zones" across huge swaths of the district? The current configuration of schools is making this problem noticeably worse. People are very protective about their way of life in this part of the country. When a power line is proposed people instinctively step up to fight it. If someone suggested getting rid of stone bridges or bandstands people would go bananas. But when it comes to schools it's everyone for themselves. Or rather every town for itself. This is what we have to overcome if this district is ever going to make it. It's a remnant of the days when these towns used to try to kill each other on the football field and the basketball court. Now that they're in one district it's suddenly feasible to wipe out the other town not just metaphorically but in reality. We have to have some solidarity with one another at this basic level of survival or this wonderful way of life is going to disappear for all of us.