ROTTERDAM Neighbors: School resulted in ‘chaos’ Town urged to have control over building BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Dale Monini was never a fan of his neighbor across the street. For more than a year, the Draper Avenue resident says he contended with traffic, garbage blowing onto his lawn and an ever-changing staff at the International Charter School of Schenectady. Monini said he braced for trouble when the school moved there, but never envisioned the level of problems his neighborhood would face. “I knew it was going to be chaos over there,” he said Thursday. “It was worse.” Now the State University’s board of trustees has ordered the charter school to close at the end of this school year, citing weak test scores. With the charter school closing, Monini and other neighbors are urging the town to exercise control over the former Draper School building. A half-dozen critics attended the Town Board’s agenda meeting Thursday, angry about developments since the school occupied the building in June 2006. “Nothing has happened over there that was promised,” Monini said. He complained to the school three times about an improperly shielded halogen light that lit up his home at night, but only received a response after hiring a lawyer. “I had to spend money to get them to do it,” he said. Others complained of charter school staffers smoking cigarettes on their property, despite complaints. Some said the school seldom bothered to clear snow from their sidewalks and that garbage from school grounds began to choke adjacent streets. Rotterdam Supervisor Steve Tommasone said the town will compile a “refresher packet” containing documents produced before the charter school was approved by the Planning Board. He said board members should be reminded of the problems before considering a new tenant for the building, which is owned by the charter school. “We’re going to see what measures are appropriate for the town of Rotterdam to take to appropriately address the concerns of the neighborhood,” he said. Meanwhile, charter school administrators are exploring their options, said school spokesman Saleem Cheeks. The school owes up to $7 million to creditors and will explore whether to lease, sell or turn over the Draper Avenue property to First Niagara, the bank holding much of the school’s debt. “These matters are all ongoing,” he said Friday. Cynthia Proctor, a spokeswoman for the Charter Schools Institute, a support organization, said the school will prepare a closure plan in the coming weeks. She said the school will need to deposit $75,000 in a trust so that there is enough money to cover legal fees associated with the closure. “That process is really just beginning, in earnest, next week,” she said. But Monini said neighbors want assurances the property won’t be used for another school, as some have suggested recently. Earlier this week, Schenectady Schools Superintendent Eric Ely indicated the district was exploring using the Draper School for classrooms. “We just don’t want to see a school there again,” Monini said. Although agreeing the property is inadequate for a school like ICSS, Tommasone said keeping the building vacant is not a viable option. He suggested the building be returned to its use as a small office building prior to being purchased by the charter school. “It would be a shame for there not to be a use,” he said. “I do not want to see that building vacant.”
Whatever it turns out to be, it will be expensive to renovate, AGAIN. I would not like to see it become part of the Schenectady School System as Mr. Ely suggests.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
A nursing home would be a great idea. As a Draper student it was great to see all the work the Charter School did to improve that old run down place. All they needed were some new windows. I really would like to see something useful in that building. I have such great memories of that school.
Whatever goes in that building it needs to be neighborhood friendly.
It is not a big campus like schools of the modern era. It was built a long time ago and cannot handle the traffic. No matter what you may hear, the residents in the area were subject to alot of bad political management both on the charter school and Town's part.
Charter school site draws interest BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
ROTTERDAM — Four organizations have taken tours of the now-vacant International Charter School of Schenectady, but no offers have been made to buy the building. The Draper Avenue property is listed with Prudential Blake-Atlantic Realtors of Albany for $7.5 million. The school closed last month after the SUNY Board of Trustees did not renew its charter. ICSS President Tracy Petersen said the real estate agents have sent out fliers to other educational providers and community groups that may been in need of a facility like this. “So far, there has not been a serious interested party,” she said. Petersen declined to comment on who has toured the building. Selling the building is a top priority for charter school officials to pay off about $6.7 million in outstanding debt. The other option would be for the bank — First Niagara — to foreclose on the property. Business Manager Lori Veshia reported that the state Comptroller’s Office is sending out a $202,691 payment to the school to cover aid that the Schenectady City School District withheld. “When that money comes in, we pay everybody we owe, we come out even,” she said.
Logged
