The Poughkeepsie Journal 3/3/2009
By Janine Stankus
The Webutuck Central School District held two forums during the month of February to give the public a chance to weigh in on the proposed closure of the Amenia Elementary School building.
Three elementary schools are included in the Webutuck district: Amenia Elementary, Webutuck Elementary, and Millerton Elementary. The Board of Education has discussed shutting down the Amenia facility, which hosts 176 students in kindergarten through grade two, and placing them in the Webutuck building.
The first public forum held on Feb. 11 at Amenia Town Hall involved both the Webutuck Central School District and the Amenia Town Board. The district has discussed transferring the title of the elementary school building to the town, which currently rents space from the local fire department.
“For over ten years we’ve been looking for a new facility for our town hall,” said Town of Amenia Supervisor Wayne Euvrad. “Everybody’s in this building, we need more space.”
If the plan goes through, the building would have to be retrofitted for office use. According to Euvrad, the town plans on doing an energy audit to save on lighting costs and installing better heating and thermostats. He hopes to allay the cost of revamping the building by eventually renting out space to state and county agencies.
The Amenia forum, noted Euvrad, drew a sizeable crowd. His impression of the public response was positive. “I believe that most people think it’s good,” he said.
A second forum was held on Feb. 19 at the Millerton Elementary School. According to Webutuck Superintendent Dr. Richard Johns, 13 people attended this forum despite a major snowstorm that racked the region.
Johns claimed that the concept of closing one of the district schools is a topic that residents are familiar with. “I think the notion of closing a building goes back decades,” he said. “In the 1950s when the community started talking about erecting a high school building—there was discussion at that point.”
Kathleen McEnroe, principal of Amenia Elementary School, expressed her similar impression of the public response. “They’re okay with it now. They understand our enrollment has been decreasing for a number of years and it makes financial sense.”
McEnroe, who is also part-time principal of the Webutuck Elementary School, assumes that she will assume a full-time position there if the closure takes place. The shutdown will, however, result in job losses for other faculty and staff.
The closure of Amenia Elementary will be included in the Superintendent’s budget proposal, which will be presented to the Board of Education on March 2. The board will have until the end of April to accept the budget, which will be submitted for public vote in May.
Johns believes that closing the school is a better option than cutting program funding across the board. “While there’s a sad side to walking away from a facility that we’ve had for decades,” he said, “there’s more or less a general approval that it’s better to do that than deprive children of educational opportunity.