Use Mary J. Tanner School or close it?

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By Jamie Norton

Granville school district officials emphasized during a strategic planning committee meeting on Thursday that no decision has been made on whether to close Mary J. Tanner School in Middle Granville, and that none will be made in the immediate future.

The committee met at the high school to discuss the potential ramifications of closing the school after a study done by Dr. Paul Seversky earlier this year suggested that such an action could save the school district hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

It discussed what, if anything, the property could be used for, as well as what kind of building projects and renovations would be required at Granville Elementary School and Granville High School for those schools to accommodate the increase in student population ensuing from Mary J. Tanner’s closure. Conversely, the committee talked about the option of keeping MJT open and renovating its space for more efficient use.

A roundtable discussion will be held at an undetermined date for stake-holders to further discuss the study and possible options, but that has been tabled for now, at least until after the strategic planning committee’s next meeting on Dec. 1. School superintendent Mark Bessen said more research has to be done as the committee works to determine a variety of feasible options.

“Just because somebody does a report, you don’t say, ‘That’s it, it’s done, let’s do it,’” Bessen said. “You’ve got to look at different options. Maybe (closing the school) might be the best thing for our kids – nobody’s saying no. But on the other side of the (discussion), when you have this opportunity, what are the other things that you could do?”

Some options the committee has looked into for alternate use of the MJT building include adult classes through Adirondack Community College or St. Joseph’s College of Rutland, Vt., or a regional center for Vo-Tech or other BOCES programs. However, none of those options have any momentum at this time, as the committee is still weighing and formulating ideas.

“When the board goes to make decisions, it’s not, ‘What’s good just for today?’ They have a tough job,” Bessen said. “Their job is ‘What is good for tomorrow?’ What could they envision in the future to make sure our graduates are the best-prepared that they can be, and do they have the best facilities and everything to be able to rally around and use?”

One of the ideas – keeping the school open – is also an option at current student populations, which are said to be shrinking within the district. But projected district-wide enrollment, according to Seversky’s report, is expected to decrease by between 70 and 230 students over the next 10 years. That’s why officials are considering either renovating the space for more efficient use or closing the school and shuffling students from Mary J. Tanner into Granville Elementary School. That may also result in sixth-graders – and maybe even fifth-graders – moving into the high school.

The next step in the investigation will be talking to engineer Matt Monahan about the space at the three schools and asking Queensbury Board of Education vice president Jill Borgos about the consultants from CSArch Architecture that her school district used to get a similar consolidation/renovation project off the ground. The committee hopes to meet with, or at least speak with, those sources before its Dec. 1 meeting.

“They could help us with, if we close the school, how to use the spaces we have and expand them,” school board president Audrey Hicks said. “The other thing is, if we don’t close Mary J., it would also work out the ways to better utilize the spaces to upgrade our learning capacity in terms of – not necessarily improving what is being taught – but getting better areas in which to teach.”

Either way, Bessen and Hicks both said, nothing will happen without significant input and approval from the public.

“No decision will be done quickly, hastily, or without a lot of communication from the board to the community,” Bessen said. “And if the community doesn’t vote it in, it’s not going to happen. No matter what decision the board makes, in the end, the public is going to need to support that decision in order to make it all worthwhile for the kids.”

“These schools are the community’s schools,” Hicks said, “and the community is going to be involved in the decision.”

The board hopes to make that decision sometime in the spring based on the next few months of research, meetings, and public feedback. Then, once a decision is agreed upon, the board can put it to a vote.