By Jonathan Cronin
Responding to vehement complaints from parents, a committee at the Woodmere Middle School has finalized its recommendations in a last-ditch effort to alleviate overcrowding at the school next year.
The Ad Hoc Middle School Facilities Committee will present the school board with its findings to relieve jam-packed classrooms, during a work meeting on Feb. 14.
The committee was formed in November to find immediate and long-term solutions at the school, after the failure of an $85 million bond package last March, which included the construction of a new middle school.
This is the first phase of a two-part interim plan, in which the district will take care of the immediate needs at the school.
About 70 district parents, school officials and administrators met in a public forum at the Woodmere Education Center on Thursday, Jan. 25 to discuss these plans.
As part of its recommendations, the committee has suggested converting the school library into two classrooms. If students want to withdraw library books, they must first fill out a form, said Dr. Myrna Uhlich, deputy superintendent. She added that the book will be retrieved from a storage room, where the books will be held, and then reach the student within a week.
The idea of a book mobile visiting the campus was considered, but Dr. Karen Chapman, assistant superintendent of business, said that a book mobile is not economically feasible.
The middle school's only remaining computer lab will be turned into classroom space, as well. To compensate, the school is placing six computers in each classroom. To alleviate space problems that six average desktop computers would present, the school is buying Winterm computers, which will be hooked up to one main server in the classroom. These computers are close to the size of laptops and save a considerable amount of space. The district will also ask teachers to enhance their own skills on the computer and internet, in order to incorporate this into their classroom instruction.
The conversion of these rooms into classroom space was deemed necessary to keep the middle school's average class size at 25 for the 2001-2002 school year..
In the 2002-2003 school year, there will be no more spaces to convert into classrooms and class size in that school year is expected to escalate to an average of 28 students per classroom.
Next year, there will also be no more lockers available. Dennis Sheridan, director of facilities, said that if they find wall space in the school, it would be possible for his staff to mount lockers to the walls.
To tackle the on-going and irritating mold problem and air quality issue stemming from the crawl space underneath the middle school, the committee is forming a Health and Safety Committee to keep on top of the situation. The committee is scheduled to meet within the next two weeks.
The school board has also received suggestions on what to do with the mold. Parents have suggested placing air purifiers in the classrooms. At a recent school board meeting, residents said they were in favor of the district hiring another air quality specialist to assess the air quality in the middle school. Parents have expressed concern about the health of their children directly relating to the air quality of the middle school. They have suggested that the school survey the difference between the number of students who incur illnesses at the middle school and high school.
One parent whose two children attend the middle school said parents are overwhelmed with concern about the condition of the school. She said one classroom was closed because of a leaking roof.
"It's the fact that the school is in very poor condition," she said. "And it doesn't have the capabilities to carry the influx of children coming in the next two years."
She also is worried that the school will be without a library and a media center, which is being converted into classroom space.
Gene Silverman of BOCES, moderator of the evening's forum, said that many committee members have been frustrated that portable classrooms will not be available for the 2001-2002 school year. The measure must be voted on by the public and the district fears it cannot get this done in time to start construction over the summer. If the district gets voter approval by May, the district may get the portables by next February, said schools superintendent Dr. Charles Fowler. School officials said it takes nine months for the state to pass an application giving them the authority to build portables, which would cost several hundred thousand dollars, Dr. Fowler said.
One parent, an attorney, suggested that the district sue the state. If the state has a month to process these forms and is taking nine months to process the request, then the district should sue, she said.
