Florentine Hendrick Gets a Reprieve
Louise Hoffman Broach / Wayuga Editor
Wednesday, June 17 2009
NORTH ROSE - The North Rose-Wolcott school board wants to know how much it will cost to renovate North Rose Elementary School before it moves ahead with plans to shutter Florentine Hendrick.
Last week, the board voted to hire architectural consultant, S.E.I. Design to do a cost analysis for the needed changes to the North Rose school to accommodate kindergarten through second graders who would move into the building should Florentine Hendrick close.
The building now houses third through fifth graders. To make room for the lower grades, bathrooms would have to be added for kindergartners, the cafeteria would need to be enlarged and the back wing of the building, where there are several classrooms that have not been in use, would have to be re-commissioned, said District Superintendent Lucinda Miner.
The fifth grade, which is currently housed in North Rose, would move into Leavenworth Middle School. Miner said there is plenty of room in that building and no changes would have to be made there.
A straw poll three weeks ago had the majority of the board voting to consolidate the district’s kindergarten through eighth graders into two buildings within the next two years. Kathy DeAngelis and Cliff Parton voted no.
On June 9, the board was to hold a formal vote on the matter, but decided instead to see how much it will cost to renovate North Rose. The board has been looking at the issue since last fall, Declining enrollment, coupled with rising operating costs and uncertain state aid, were factors in considering the closure, board members have said.
The district has estimated it would save more than a half-million dollars a year by closing Florentine Hendrick
Miner said there were three possibilities: keeping kindergarten through second grade at Florentine and revisiting the issue in 2011, keeping the building open but sharing space in it with other functions, or closing the building by 2011 and selling or leasing it.
Miner said it was time for the board to make a decision because $1.7 million that had been earmarked in a capital project for Florentine Hendrick has not been used and the time would eventually come to close out the project, which couldn’t be done if the money were in limbo.
Those funds, as well as $1.2 million left from when renovations at the district’s other buildings came in below bid, could be used to renovate the North Rose building. However, Miner suggested the shift in the money use be put up for a referendum because making changes to North Rose Elementary was not originally how the public indicated the funds should be spent.
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