To the Editor:

This is a letter I wrote to the Guilderland Board of Education members.

I am responding to a letter I and other members of the volunteer community received from Superintendent Marie Wiles dated Aug. 31, 2015, thanking us for our service on the Repurposing Task Force: Investigating Alternative Uses of Space.  The letter made reference to the board's discussion of next steps on the project.

I am optimistic that the board will take positive steps to move toward using district excess space, but I am concerned that the tenure and commitment to the process appears to be less than apparent at the moment. 

The letter from Superintendent Wiles suggests that the district will complete a more detailed analysis of its available space, with no timeline or clear objectives mentioned other than a rather general statement about studying the use of excess space.  We have heard from the administration throughout that there is a need to do their homework, but it seems we should be beyond this stage of planning by now.

In 2014, a report was released with an apparent urgency to close schools based on what turned out to be a flawed and myopic report that eventually was put aside so that the district might focus on ways to use its excess space to gain revenue.  It is now more than a year later, and it appears the district is not moving ambitiously forward to capitalize on the community and staff work to address the shortage of revenue.

I know how protracted and bureaucratic institutions can be.  However, continuing the process of studying the issue does not seem to be where the district should be at this point.

The task force report was distributed to the board in early July.  The board discussed the report at its Aug. 18 meeting.  I believe, based on reports in the local media of your August board meeting, that the next steps in the project are promised to be announced at your October meeting.

I, and I assume others on the various task forces, will be eager to see some definitive comprehensive action steps outlined then, including attention to continued community involvement. 

The report's groundwork sets an excellent base to develop real and concrete plans within the context of this fall's budget discussions, rather than prolonging the analysis and assessment of parameters around the issue into the next school year, rendering positive revenue outcomes useless to this year's budget negotiations.

When I appeared before your board in August, I urged active attention to this topic and expressed my hope that the good work of our community will not fall on fallow ground like the work completed on similar issues in 2006.  I appreciate the volunteer work you do as public servants, but I think our community deserves more attention to this issue than we appear to be seeing.

Jim Gaughan, mayor

Village of Altamont