School board inaction leaves reconstruction funding in doubt
Lack of decision on excess classrooms imperils approval of state financing
The Buffalo Board of Education failed Monday to make the tough decisions necessary to gain state approval for the $250 million final phase of the school reconstruction project, increasing the possibility that the work will be delayed for a year or even scrapped because of state budget woes.
In a 5-3 vote, the board passed a resolution that listed eight schools for reconstruction but failed to spell out how to reduce excess space at city high schools as required by the state. Albany funds about 97 percent of the work.
“[The State Education Department] will reject this in its entirety,” Gary M. Crosby, the district’s chief financial and operating officer, told the board. “That is the first phone call I will get.”
That leaves the board with a razor-thin timetable to determine whether it will move Leonardo DaVinci High School from leased space at the D’Youville College campus or eventually close either Grover Cleveland High School or Lafayette High School.
“We only have a few weeks left here—maybe five—before [the State Legislature] session ends,” Crosby said.
If the project fails to get legislative approval, the board could try again next year and be faced with — at best — a one-year delay in the reconstruction of what will ultimately be either seven or eight schools.
But Crosby is concerned that the state’s dire economic woes could get even worse, putting the project in jeopardy. That would create long-feared inequities, with most Buffalo schools modern and updated, and others old and run-down.
“If we don’t complete Phase Five, I look at this reconstruction program as a failure,” said Superintendent James A. Williams.
Board members, who have been considering the issue for more than eight months, acknowledged the need to act quickly.
“We made half a decision,” said Park District board member Lou Petrucci.
“We are running out of time,” said Christopher L. Jacobs, an at-large board member. “We can get into a situation where we get paralyzed.”
But it quickly became clear during a nearly two-hour special meeting that the board was not going to decide the politically painful question of how to reduce excess high school capacity.
Instead, the motion that calls for the reconstruction of eight schools was seen as a holding action that moves the process forward and buys Crosby some time while the board considers the high school issue. It was sponsored by West District board member Ralph Hernandez.
Board discussion largely reflected a desire to keep DaVinci in leased spaced at D’Youville, as students, parents and faculty at the school have been urging.
If that happens, the board would have to leave either Grover Cleveland or Lafayette out of the reconstruction program — and ultimately close that school — to satisfy the state.
Merging Grover Cleveland and Lafayette would be “the natural conclusion,” said North District board member Catherine Nugent Panepinto. “We have to face reality that we have to close a high school.”
Florence D. Johnson, an at-large board member, also said the board should “look very closely” at closing Lafayette.
Jacobs said Wednesday was the first time the possibility of closing Lafayette was discussed. “I would never do that without public notice and outreach and input,” he said.
Williams said he would set up public meetings at both Grover Cleveland and Lafayette.
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