To the Editor:

At its Nov. 4 meeting, the Guilderland Central School District Board of Education will accept public input on the budget development for the 2016-17 academic year. I would like to strongly encourage Guilderland residents to attend, or at least email the board members and the district leadership their input on the school budget.

In the past year and a half, we have seen firsthand what can happen when residents are vocal and persistent when addressing their elected board of education.

This time last year the Altamont Enterprise’s letters to the editor pages were filled with messages from the community and beyond imploring the Guilderland Board of Education to not close an elementary school.

The previous summer, a report had been released confirming the board members’ belief that the district was operating under capacity. The report outlined that the district could deal with this capacity “problem” by closing an elementary school (and most options targeted Altamont Elementary School for closure).

What followed was a vocal and persistent outcry from the public. Yet, even after speakers at board meetings, red T-shirts, lawn signs, and detailed research presented to the board of education, the board and the district held fast. There was extra capacity, they said, and something needed to be done.

“We can’t do nothing,” we were told at the Future of Guilderland Schools Summit last November. After all, there are whole hallways of lockers not being used in Farnsworth Middle School!  And so a task force was created with dozens of community members to look at what could be done with all this extra space.

After six months of meetings, research, and hard work, a 120-page report was released in August, outlining the feasibility of using the excess space for a pre-kindergarten program, adult day-care, start-up incubator, or commercial rentals. When the board of education members reviewed and discussed the report, it was clear they wanted to pursue pre-kindergarten, and, if possible, a start-up incubator as well.

However, the board shortly realized there was one slight problem.

According to the district, there were very few, if any, actual, empty rooms to use for a pre-kindergarten program. The flawed report from 2014 used a mathematical model to determine that the district had so much empty space, when, in fact, there were not any vacant rooms.

The “empty” rooms have been allocated for various other educational uses. This, of course, is one of the many arguments that Guilderland residents had been making for the past year.

So now, as the board of education is looking to its residents again, we need to be clear and persistent about what we want from our school district. First and foremost in my mind, the district must follow through on the work of the task force.

As space is identified a pre-kindergarten program should be established in time for the next academic year, and, where possible, an incubator program should be developed. Not only do these things respect the hard work of the task force, but they also utilize any free space that does exist in beneficial ways for the district and the community. These programs can also generate revenue for the district as it struggles with the exceptionally limited tax cap this year.

On a larger scale, I would like to see the board and the district articulate what, exactly, is the future of Guilderland Central Schools. The “priorities” posted online state that the district will cultivate students who are:

— Healthy, safe and, engaged;

— Globally aware and connected; and

— Intellectually challenged and academically accomplished.

These “priorities,” while noble, are sufficiently vague so that any program, club, initiative, or endeavor could be justified or supported by these words. When push comes to shove and cuts need to be made within the district, the current priorities give no guidance or insight into what needs to be cut first.

The board should spend some time coming up with clear priorities for the district so that everyone understands what the most important components of the district are, where the district should invest resources as they become available, and where cuts should be made when they are needed.

Beyond budget time, a clear set of district priorities also would help faculty and staff focus their energies, and give students and parents a good understanding of where the district is headed.

That will be my input to the board: Finish the work of the task force, and plot out a clear vision for the future of the Guilderland Central School District. I hope that you will join me in reaching out to the board of education at its meeting on Nov. 4, or by emailing the members directly. With persistence and with many voices, we can help shape the future of our district.

Nicholas Fahrenkopf

Altamont

Editor’s note: Nicholas Fahrenkopf ran for the Guilderland School Board in May and also served on the task force, presenting a report to the board on incubating businesses in excess school space.