Washington Avenue Kindergarten Center to close?

District 30 school officials are considering closing the Washington Avenue Kindergarten Center next year in an effort to save money, as it faces a possible 12 percent cut in state aid.

The 5,200-square-foot facility has filled many roles since it opened in 1956. It began as a small school, but was then closed and rented out to a nursery school. District 30 then took the building back in the 1990s, when it served as its administrative offices, before renovating it in 2003 to serve the kindergarten classes from Clear Stream Avenue.

The building currently houses three kindergarten classes. Lisa Rutkoske, assistant superintendent for business, said it was “more likely than not” that Washington Avenue would close next year. Rutkoske said there would be space at Shaw Avenue School for those classes.

Superintendent Dr. Elaine Kanas said that because of enrollment projections, there will be two additional classrooms at Shaw Avenue next year. Also, the district has a new science program, which is being taught in regular classes, meaning that the science specialist position will likely be eliminated. That will free up a third classroom at Shaw Avenue, currently being used as a science lab. “Now you have three classrooms that you’re not doing anything with,” Kanas said.

Rutkoske said that the students who would eventually move on to Clear Stream Avenue School for first grade would likely be kept in the same kindergarten classes together at Shaw.

Kanas added that having those students at Shaw Avenue would give them access to facilities they don’t have at Washington Avenue, including art and music rooms, a gymnasium, a computer lab, an auditorium and a library. The only space that Washington Avenue has beyond the three classrooms and an office is an all-purpose room.

Shaw Avenue and Washington Avenue, which houses 58 students this year, are also in the same neighborhood, Kanas said, so it would not be much extra distance for parents.

The savings from closing the building would be at least $150,000 a year, Rutkoske said. Although the three kindergarten teachers would be kept, Washington Avenue would no longer need its own support staff, including a nurse and security guard. A closure would also reduce utility costs.

If the Board of Education decides to close Washington Avenue, Rutkoske said, the district would try to rent out the building. It would be most useful as a day care center or other early-childhood facility, she explained. Rutkoske said she did not yet have an estimate of how much rental income the district could make.

Kanas said she would rather see the building rented out than have it sit empty. “That would be extra revenue that would be brought back into the district,” she said. “We wouldn’t want to sell it. You may need that space again.”

Many years ago, a spill from a gas station on Merrick Road seeped under the Clear Stream property, preventing the district from adding enough space to the building to keep up with growing enrollment. Instead, it converted the Washington Avenue building from the district office to a kindergarten center for Clear Stream in 2003, and acquired space in an office building on Central Avenue for the administration.

Board of Education President Elise Antonelli said her hope is that a closure would be for just a few years, but district officials have to be realistic. District 30 is facing a potential state aid cut of $660,000 next year under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget, and school officials say the projections for the following year are not much better.

Even a 3 percent budget increase, which is what the district is now considering, would result in a tax levy increase of about 6 percent. Kanas said that just to keep current programs intact, the tax levy would have to rise at least 10 percent, “which would have been ridiculous.”

That’s why administrators are proposing about $1.1 million in staff cuts and program modifications. Rutkoske said they are not looking to cut any programs entirely, but rather exploring reductions and efficiencies. She also noted that the district is considering cutting the equivalent of about 12 full-time positions.

Antonelli said that with the expected drastic cut in state aid, as well as a $2.1 million increase in mandated expenses, including retirement and health insurance costs, anything is on the table. She said that board members want to hear feedback from the public at their next meeting, Monday night, Feb. 28, when the 2011-12 budget will be discussed. The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. at the Shaw Avenue School.