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Former Catholic schools get new secular life
City leases buildings to ease overcrowding caused by students moving into region, closing of charter school

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published: Monday, August 18, 2008

SCHENECTADY -- A row of hooks on a wall at the former Marian Academy on Bradt Street hasn't held a child's coat in four years.
The library, a series of wood shelves in an upstairs hallway, is vacant, and the chute to the incinerator has long since been padlocked.

     
But academic life will soon return to the former Catholic elementary school when the Schenectady City School District takes it over to handle an influx of students who are moving into the city or transferring from the now closed International Charter School of Schenectady. The charter school, which used the Old Draper School in Rotterdam, was closed by the state because of inconsistent curriculum and enrollment.

The building is one of three former Catholic schools the school district is leasing for at least the next five years to handle the unexpected rise in enrollment.

Buildings the city school district owned during Schenectady's boom years were sold during enrollment declines in the 1990s. They included the former Brandywine Elementary, which was sold to a private developer who wanted to turn it into apartments before a 2007 arson fire destroyed the structure.

The Roman Catholic Catholic Diocese of Albany, which owns property throughout the Capital Region, will make over a $3.5 million on lease agreements for the now vacant buildings.

The deal is important to the city school district, which is in immediate need of school space.

The diocese's vacant school buildings are often sold to private developers for noneducational uses. But a few, such as the former St. James School in Albany, which is now the Brighter Choice Charter School, are still used for education.

Diocese spokesman Ken Goldfarb said the lease arrangement serves both the diocese and Schenectady schools well in that it generates revenue for the diocese while providing badly needed classroom space for the school district.

The former Marian Academy building, which will now be called the Katharine Burr Blodgett Elementary School, can accommodate up to 170 prekindergarten through sixth grade students, district officials said.

The former St. Adalbert's school on Lansing Street, now called Franklin D. Roosevelt Elementary, is also being leased and has a capacity of up to 110 Pre-K through sixth-grade students.

The district also is leasing the former St. Luke's school on Albany Street, which will open this school year as William C. Keane Elementary School. Last year, voters approved spending $1.6 million on renovations and using the building for at least 15 years.

The district says 90 percent of the leases' costs on all of the diocese buildings are reimbursed by the state.

District enrollment projections for the 2008-2009 school year show that the number of students could increase from the high 9,000s to as many as 10,300 -- largely because of the charter school influx. District enrollment has grown by more than 2,400 students since 1994.
Given the enrollment increases, Schenectady schools Superintendent Eric Ely said the idea of building a new K-8 school is being considered but no decision has been made. The city also once had two high schools -- Linton and Mont Pleasant -- before the two were merged in 1992 to form Schenectady High amid a declining high school enrollment of about 1,900. Enrollment now totals in excess of 2,900, according to the latest school district figures. But there are no plans currently to go back to a two-high school district, Ely said.
A long-term solution will also still have to be found at Blodgett school for a cafeteria and gymnasium. For now, empty classrooms in the building will be used for physical education classes and to serve meals.

Meanwhile, Nancy Fontaine, the new Blodgett principal, said she's in no rush to get rid of a small, intimate school setting.

"This is like a big classroom and to me that's exciting," said Fontaine, who was previously assistant principal at Mont Pleasant Middle School and a fifth-grade teacher for 18 years. "To have this size, I couldn't ask for anything better."

Lauren Stanforth can be reached at 454-5697 or by e-mail at lstanforth@timesunion.com.