Springs Ponders Takeover of Charter School Space
A solution to the overcrowding at the Springs School may lie in the building in East Hampton that houses the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, which is to close at the end of the academic year. Liz Mendelman, the Springs School Board president, announced during a meeting of the board on Monday that the district is looking into leasing or purchasing the charter school building from Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, the nonprofit known as FREE, which manages it. FREE owns the building, while the Town of East Hampton owns the land.
“This wasn’t on the radar a month ago,” Ms. Mendelman said. “It wasn’t even an option, but now that C.D.C.H. is closing, that space is available. First, we need to find out if the school district can lease or buy. It is out of district and it’s two districts away. That has to be explored. We’re hoping we can get an answer soon so we can figure out whether we need to move forward or not.” Ms. Mendelman said by phone yesterday that the district had asked its attorneys, Ingerman & Smith of Hauppauge, to investigate. She and John J. Finello, the superintendent, and Barbara Dayton, a school board member, toured the building on June 6.
Carole Campolo, a Springs resident who attended the meeting, urged the board to grab the building “in lieu of the expansion for the school,” which the district has been exploring for some time. “It’s 30,000 square feet of already-constructed space for a school. . . . It would alleviate the burden on the taxpayers, and since the crunch for space is now, you can alleviate your current space issues much more quickly than you could with any expansion that would not be completed until 2020 at the very best,” she said.
When Springs officials learned that the publicly funded charter school was to close, they realized Springs would have to absorb the 26 children who have attended classes there. The decision was to convert a computer lab into a classroom and to provide laptops on mobile carts moved from classroom to classroom. But C.D.C.H.’s demise also frees up about $725,000 in the 2016-17 budget. Ms. Mendelman said the money was an unexpected resource even though Springs would have to make some sort of investment in the C.D.C.H. building because it lacks a gymnasium and has movable walls and classroom spaces better suited for elementary rather than middle school students.
Also at the meeting, the school board approved, after a public hearing, to use $100,000 from the district’s reserves to complete certain repairs and upgrades. These include some new doors and windows, new burners for the boiler, and a new alarm system that will allow officials to pinpoint exactly where an incident is occurring within the building.
The board also heard a presentation from Chaleff and Rogers, the district’s architectural firm, about the overall condition of the building and grounds. According to the firm, several improvements are necessary, most importantly to the septic system and the roof. Also identified for improvement were the bus loop and traffic flow, and parking. A full report is to be sent to the New York State Education Department by the end of the month.