Clarkstown keeps Congers Elementary closed

CLARKSTOWN – Congers Elementary School will remain closed to students next year to accommodate projected declining enrollment in the district, Clarkstown school officials said Thursday.

The decision to continue operating nine elementary schools rather than 10 will "minimize disruption to the entire district," Superintendent J. Thomas Morton told a somber crowd of parents, students and teachers at a board meeting at Clarkstown South High School.

The Board of Education voted 6-1 to approve Morton's recommendation, with Trustee Chris Conti opposed.

The building eventually will be rented out, possibly as a day-care facility, but officials didn't make public any details on revenue expectations. They've said they are uninterested in selling the 6.3-acre property.

The decision means Congers students who were dispersed to New City and Lakewood elementary schools this year will remain in their new placements.

Morton said in making the difficult decision he considered that despite behavioral issues with a few children, displaced students seem generally to be doing well in their new environments.

The much-anticipated announcement came after months of bitter speculation and debate about what would become of the red brick school building after structural damage in a gym wall was discovered in August 2013 and it was closed. A year ago, voters overwhelmingly approved spending up to $6.5 million to repair and reopen Congers. That work is underway.

Parents and community members reacted strongly after Morton broke the news at the end of a nearly 60-minute speech. Residents who'd voted for the repair bond with the understanding that it would let their children return to the school said they felt cheated.

One Congers mother chastised officials for "the awful ride you took the Congers community on" over the past 18 months. Several speakers criticized what they said was a lack of transparency and organization by officials over those 18 months.

"I thank you for donkey-kicking democracy right in the heart tonight," said Dave Gottlieb of Congers, calling administrators' financial decision-making "reprehensible."

Clarkstown's 8,400-student enrollment has declined 7.4 percent in the past 10 years and will continue shrinking, according to projections in a demographics report the district commissioned last year.

Keeping Congers offline as a school will save about $1.5 million in staff and operating costs in the 2015-16 budget, Clarkstown officials have said. If the savings weren't found another way, the district would need to cut high school programs and staff, they said.

Other parents quietly acknowledged the school closure is sad but said it was the fiscally responsible thing to do as the district faces a looming deficit while its ability to raise property taxes is curbed by the tax-levy cap.

"It's tough because there's so much emotion," said Maryellen Amendola, a parent from West Nyack. She was sympathetic to board members and thinks they acted responsibly on the school closure. "They're trying, but their hands are tied with each board election."

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