Why I am voting Yes this coming Tuesday is a positive step for the Huntington School district. Huntington school district has been grappling with space needs for several years now and has never taken a big step to build for the future. There have been baby steps along the way but never a large investment in buildings/facilities as our neighboring districts have done in the past 10 years.
During the past 10 years the district has done capital improvement projects that include installing new windows and doors on buildings, replacing roofs, replacing fuel tanks and even a multimillion dollar upgrade of athletic fields and bleachers at the high school. Yet, for several years now we’ve heard that the school enrollment is going up. To deal with overcrowding at 3 schools in the district in 2007 the recommendation was to re-draw the district lines and shuffle students around in addition to adding 2 classrooms at Woodhull. That was a band aid fix that many admit to today and here we are in Huntington still dealing with the overcrowding. We have limited space in 5 buildings now.
The BOE voted unanimously to move forward with a referendum to begin to take more steps to ease the overcrowding. Some say they want to see the big plan before spending dollars. I am a member of the school districts long range buildings planning committee. We met last week and were told that our September deadline will now be extended. If the committee puts forth recommendations by year end, then the BOE needs to discuss and vote on it. After that a referendum to spend more dollars on building will be put to the residents of Huntington school district. That may not happen until next summer. When all is said and done the delay to build anywhere in a district that is bursting at the seams in 5 of its 7 schools could be over two years away. The proposed additions to the Woodhull building could be functional to use at some point in the 2011/2012 school year. That could ease the burden of the overcrowding across the primary schools. I believe in planning and I also believe that investing in $2 million dollars is part of a plan that has been long overdue in this district that has needed it for so long. It’s a baby step to a more long term solution. My investment is in my 6 year old and 2 year old children’s education. As part of that investment the $2 million is a step toward that larger investment for all children who will be educated in HUFSD. This is just one step in building blocks to the future for the Huntington school district.
Michele Kustera
Huntington
Who is investing in my children THIS year? You have a 6 and a 2 yr old. My childrens education is actually being interrupted THIS YEAR by this inept BOE.
They should not get ONE MORE CENT of money until they have a plan!! I want to know where my children will be going next year…will Jack Abrams be reopened? What are we working towards?
I hope this mess is straightened out before your kids have to face this nonsense.
Michele,
With a perfectly good school and no long term plan yet it is fiscally irresponsible to use that money. As your committee may find it to be better used as part of the bigger picture.
And btw our boe has been more than irresponsible in the past for.
1-selling buildings you could use now.
2-not planning long term, as was needed many times in the past
3-and now not utilizing an asset that is needed.
Wait when the next budget goes down, less buses, no after school, etc…
Teachers thinking of 3%+ raises etc…we as a community need tax relief not more taxes. Economically the next 3 years are going to be horrible less state aid because of billions that will have to be cut from it’s budget as the state deficit will worsen. Unfortunately we are going to see another large round of foreclosures too.
Already in the last 6 months many have lost $50,000-100,000+ in home values, not to mention 401 or 201k’s. A lot of us are tapped out no more taxes, bond issues, nothing. I do have to feed my family too. Sorry Michele.
Michele is dead on accurate in her letter and I am glad she submitted it. I was tiring of the same old 5 people spewing their hate towards our BOE and towards parents who are quite honestly glad JA is closed to children. They keep saying we have a perfectly good building not being used, ya know what? We dont, we dont have a perfectly good school thats not closed to our children. We have Woodhull and thats it for our intermediate school. JA is not going to reopen next year because the community surrounding it will not yet be “Fixed”. When and only then will we parents get behind the reopening of the JA school. Until then, we do have a crowded out intermediate school that ALL the district will be sending their children to attend. Build onto Woodhull now and save of years of this annoying conversation