District weighs rental options for former Kings Elementary School building
Potential income likely to impact proposed 2014-15 budget
By Abby Wolf
WARWICK — The Warwick Valley School District board heard from two potential tenants for the now-shuttered Kings Elementary School building at Monday night‘s regular monthly meeting.
Representatives for both the Watchtower (a Jehovah’s Witnesses group) and Grace Community Church each presented his group’s proposed plans for the building, which is approximately 55,000 square feet in size.
According to Assistant Superintendent for Business Tim Holmes, the district would stand to take in $275,000 a year should the board approve the Watchtower proposal and $163,000 if Grace Church rents the space (some $13,000 of the latter would be applied to internal maintenance of the site.)
The district would be responsible for outside maintenance, such as mowing and plowing.
Seeking temporary digs
Troy Snyder of Watchtower said his group is looking for temporary quarters for 150 to 200 people to be housed on-site at Kings for the duration of construction of the group’s headquarters that are being built in Tuxedo (it expects the project to be completed by 2017).
Currently, the organization shuttles the 150 or so volunteers from Brooklyn to the Tuxedo site.
Parked RVs would be used to house the volunteers and would be screened from view on Kings Highway.
According to Holmes, the building’s septic system is considered adequate for the job, and no upgrading to the facilities would be necessary.
Depending on their construction schedule, Watchtower would rent the space for about two and a half to three years.
Board member John Connolly questioned what impact the group’s use of the building will have, given the lack of the public’s access to gym facilities, as Watchtower would be interested in renting the entire space.
Other groups – including a theater group that was interested in the site, according to Schools Superintendent Dr. Ray Bryant, could potentially have to look elsewhere for space, should the board approve Watchtower renting the Kings building.
‘A great fit’
Adrian Schoonmaker, of Grace Community Church and a Warwick resident, explained that his congregation, while based in Washingtonville, also has a “satellite campus” location on the Newburgh/New Windsor border, yet it needs more space. The church has 300 congregants from Warwick alone, but others also are drawn from all over Orange County.
Schoonmaker explained that his members would need the Kings building, using some 30,000 square feet of the site – “24/7,” if the board approves – for Bible studies, office work, but mainly for Sunday morning services.
He added that Grace “desire(s) to serve the community:” many of their members live in Warwick, and their kids attend district schools.
The church wouldn’t use the building for the majority of the week, so that Scouts and other groups could use the space then.
Kings would be “a great fit,” he said.
He noted that the site is “well set-up” for the church’s needs: playgrounds and classrooms for Sunday school means only “cosmetic changes” would be necessary.
As to how long Grace would be interested in renting space at Kings: “We’ll be flexible; we’ll be in as long as you (the board) see fit to have us … it would be a great opportunity to be there for only two years.”
Holmes said the church is interested in renting the space up to about seven years.
District retains first dibs
However, regardless of who ends up renting Kings, the district would have the discretion to turn it into a school building once again, should the need arise.
Although the matter has not been decided yet, nor has a final decision been made – the facilities committee has to meet ASAP – Bryant and the board are eager to meet and discuss it soon, likely at a special meeting to be held in January.
Holmes said, “We’re in a good position, because two (different) groups want to rent the building,” and the proposed income to the district would be a better alternative to an empty site.
And if the demographics warrant in the future, “It’s possible we can revert back to a school building: It’s a win-win.”
Bryant noted that “We’ll be back here in February to present a budget; every little bit helps.”
‘DIRT’ withdraws again
Organizers of the proposed DIRT charter school have withdrawn their application to the state for the second time. According to Bryant, that suggests to him that Albany was not likely to move forward with the charter.
Superintendent search update
School Board President Dave Eaton said that the board has winnowed nine candidates’ résumés down to three finalists.
The board has met in executive session four times in the past two weeks, as it looks to find a successor to Bryant, who retires at the end of the current school year.
New business
The school board accepted a $500 donation to Sanfordville on behalf of Fiji Water and RollGiving, an employee charitable-giving program, at the request of Jeffrey Cadden; the money is to be used at the discretion of Jane Diermeier for her Kindergarten class.
More on Dashboard
Due to the district’s concerns about student privacy and what would be done with student data, the board voted against transmitting student data for storage and access in InBloom’s data stores, and that no data dashboard will be given student data through extraction from school district data storage sites.
Bryant added that the district awaits a reply to his FOIL request on the dashboard agreement.
Next
The next regular meeting of the School Board will be Monday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m., in the Dorothy C. Wilson Center.