Greece, N.Y.-- In an unanimous vote, Greece School Board members approved of a consolidation plan Tuesday night.
The plan will save $2.2 million dollars as the district faces a $7 million budget deficit.
The changes come as the board realized that enrollment was decreasing and the achievement gap at different schools was widening.
The changes to elementary schools include:
- West Ridge Elementary School will move to Parkland.
- A K-5 school will open at Brookside consisting of Brookside and Parkland students
- The Kirk Road facility will close, move to Paddy Hill to create a new K-5 school
- The district will create an attendance zone around Pine Brook and use a weighted lottery system to achieve demographic balance
- Signature schools will close at the elementary school level.
The changes to secondary schools include:
- Odyssey will move into the Apollo building on Maiden Lane. The school will share the facility with Apollo Middle school.
- Olympia, Arcadia and Athena students entering the 11th grade will have to apply for the IB program at Odyssey by application.
- Olympia High School will also house 6th, 7th, and 8th graders by the 2014-2015 school year.
The lottery system for enrollment at K-6 schools of choice will also change. For example, the district will use a tiered system where students living in the school's attendance zone has first priority, then students with siblings at the school will have the next priority. For all remaining students there will a public lottery and it would be videotaped.
Not everyone is happy with the change, however, at this point, they say it's something they'll have to accept.
"[The change] was expected," says Greece parent Elizabeth Bauld."It's what the board communicated with us. I'm not very happy with it and I don't appreciate change but hopefully it will work."
Some question whether the changes are coming on too fast.
Greece School superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams says that despite popular belief that talks of the closures and consolidations had been going on for the past 18 month.
"The district had been working on this for a year by the time I had arrived," she says.
Deane-Williams says she's confident the transition will be smooth.
"I will always expect a smooth transitions. We have gone through a painstaking process of implementing multiple transition teams and we have a person in charge of the transition process."
She says that during the next few month and also during the next school year students and parents will hear from the district about the progress in implementing these changes.
"We're going to be very systematic in our approach and we'll make sure we have benchmarks along the way and we'll achieve those publicly."
Greece parent Paul Hodges says what's done is done and it's now time for parents to help their students with the changes they may face.
"The kids are perhaps the most flexible," says Hodges. "I heard someone on the board say it's the adults that have to come together and accept the change and move forward. The plan is set and so we need to move forward."
The district says letters will go out to Greece parents in mid-February notifying them about which school students are expected to attend according to the newly-drawn attendance zones.
