http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141005/NEWS02/710059947
The Park Street School in Springfield is a bone of contention between the School Board and Select Board.
Photo: Photo by Len EmeryPublished October 5, 2014 in the Rutland Herald
Springfield school’s fate to be decided Monday
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD —The School Board says it will make a long-delayed decision Monday on what to do with the 1895 Park Street School.
But the path to that decision has hardly been smooth. Last week, Springfield school and town leaders met in joint session for the first time in more than a year, with the fate of Park Street School, which served as the town’s high school until the late 1960s, one of the top issues.
There have been at least three study committees since town residents voted in 2010 to close the school and to sell or give it away. At the time, the large red-brick school housed grades 3-5, and was also home to the school district’s administrative offices.
Since that vote, the town’s other two elementary schools, Union and Elm Hill, have been renovated to absorb the middle-elementary grades.
But tempers flared during the joint session when the Select Board learned that the School Board had “revamped” a five-member joint committee on the issue and dropped the two selectmen serving on it — without notifying them.
Furthermore, the School Board said it would decide Monday whether to keep the school open.
“Thanks for letting us know tonight,” said Selectman David Yesman, who contends that the school is jointly owned by both the town and school district.
“Accept my apologies, David,” said School Board Chairwoman Jeannice Garfield.
“I don’t think this is going to go over well with the community,” said Selectman George McNaughton, who has served on some of the study committees and is a former member of the School Board. “I certainly hope something good’s coming.”
Selectwoman Stephanie Gibson Thompson said, “I am appalled as a taxpayer in this community.”
The joint committee had consisted of local businessman Steve Greene, School Board members Steve Karaffa and Ken Vandenburgh, Selectman Kristi Morris and Yesman.
Greene, a resident of neighboring Chester, is a major landlord in downtown Springfield and has renovated several properties on Main Street, including the Bank Block, the former Furman’s Department Store and, most recently, the Masons building. He also owns an apartment building next to the town hall.
Garfield said after the meeting that the joint committee had been set up by a former School Board chairman, Scott Adnams, and after he resigned and moved to Texas there were questions about the legality of appointing a Chester resident to the committee. She said the committee had been “revamped after the election” at town meeting.
“We can’t keep dilly-dallying on this,” said Garfield.
The School Board is meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Springfield High School library.
Does anyone know what the options are for what will/can happen to the building?
ReplyDeleteKaboom!!!!
ReplyDeleteIs there any structural problems with the building? There seems to be a lot of effort to save the Gear Shaper, Bryants, and J&L buildings so why not this historic gem?
ReplyDeleteJ & L Buildings are probably doomed if the litigation ever ceases, from what I have heard, however, Park Street is structurally sound, the problem is State Fire and Safety rules make it difficult and expensive to retrofit schools. They prefer new schools built from scratch. At least that is what I have been told.
DeleteThe taxpayers are already paying 40 plus millions to fix up two old elementary school buildings and have voted to close this old school building. So why are select board members upset? As a taxpayer in this town I am also appalled select board members want to talk and talk about saving another old building we have already voted to close. Four years of of talk and no solutions. The solution is money...surprise. Hey, select board show some leadership and get your own house in order.
ReplyDeleteThe taxpayers voted to close the building, we do not know what is going to happen tonight and should not assume anything! I applaud the school board for not giving in to the unprofessional members of the select board towards them. Not once did I see a school board member attack a select board member in that meeting. Yet there was a typical of Springfield Select Board response, make someone else look bad and they won’t look at our lack of leadership. I only hope this school board listened to the people and close the building!
DeleteWas that what the Select Board wanted to do? It sounded like they wanted an answer as to what the School Board was going to do. It sounded like they wanted the School Board to authorize a feasibility study so that the building could either be put to another use or sold. It sounded like the School Board Chairman had sat on the matter since June. Did I miss something?
DeleteHow many times must a town decide the fate of a building before they carry out the wishes of the voters?
ReplyDeleteWhat can possibly go wrong? Jeanice Garfield is on the case.
ReplyDeleteAh such feeling and capacity, such courage. Absolutely fearless of making a bad situation worse. We need more leadership like this, with this leadership we can make an already booming economy absolutely zing! The brilliance of converting a whole street into a theme park for our leading entrepreneurs, a complete market where people can exchange needles and bags of white stuff, sport the latest fashion in gang wear. We should be able to boost the local underground economy by at least a million by adding to our mystique. Park Street School could become our latest gem of a derelict abandoned building. The aesthetic genius of this woman is amazing, truly leadership to emulate you simply can't plan for this type of decision-making, it has to come from the heart reaching out to help the lowest of the low in their business building endeavors, providing a place for community members to gather and test their wares on each other, providing cash to the local economy and future employment for therapists at HCRS.
DeleteHow can you imply things about such a dear sweet lady who only has the poor rejected and despised drug users in mind.
DeleteThe taxpayers should vote down the school budget every time until they close and sell east school and park st school.maybe that will get their attention
ReplyDeleteDo you realize that voting the budget down will not solve that problem? It will only hurt the students who have no control over that building.
DeleteI'm glad everybody believes the school board and administrators,when they say the budget is so tight,if you only knew
DeleteBlah, blah, blah with the worn out "hurt the students refrain". Isn't it a wonder how this nation rose to greatness over the course of two centuries when students were provided with so much less? Ah, but they were taught the basics, which enabled them to succeed anyway.
DeleteAnd what if they CAN'T sell these ancient building? Our school kids suffer? That's not OK.
Delete"Our school kids" have never suffered. It's time you grew up and dealt with the facts instead of pouring out your ridiculous, anxiety riddled emotions.
DeleteI agree with Anonymous 10/6/14, 9:12 PM. Voting down the school budget is about the only option us voters have to get the School Board's attention. We're not talking about making kids suffer, we're talking about giving the Board a firm reminder that the tax paying public is not going along with indecisive leadership! The only message that I seem to be getting is that our leadership doesn't seem to be concerned about their constituent's wallets.
DeleteWhat are the wishes of the voter? Did they vote to appropriate money to do something with it? If they did could you tell me how much they voted for?
ReplyDeleteI guess by one comment it was voted to close it.
The vote was to close the building as a school. Park street school would not pass an inspection to house a full school. It is in need of a large sprinkler system for hundreds of students. But if it was used as a muti use municipal building the requirements should be different. If we as a community come up with consolidation plan. It could house many community programs. It could be used as a municipal building. Just like the old high school in Windsor. I checked with the elevator inspector and he said the elevator is in better shape than the town hall. ADA is pushing to make public building accessible. We will lose our first law suit at the community center. It has no elevator and I hope we would never attach a 130,000 dollar elevator on that building. The second park street committee had some great ideas but was never shared with the public. That is the problem here. If an idea from one person is not the others it is a bad idea. It should asked what ever happed to the ideas from the two committee's. They spent a lot of time on this for what?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that we never get public discussion about the use of Park Street School, it always gets referred to committee and then the committee reports are never acted upon or even publicly discussed.
DeleteWhat a mess... such childish response to have everyone out with no plans. We as a community could do what other surrounding communities have done. Make the building into a multi use municipal building. We now are going to have displaced activities. It would make a great community center with many use options. It has a working elevator, gym with enough spectator seats, auditorium, room to rent to the administration, a front entrance that does not have traffic flying by just eight feet away. Parking
DeleteYou are a fool to advocate for wasting more taxpayer funds on a "multi-use municipal building" at an increased cost to the taxpayers of a poor and dying town.
DeleteI would just like to point out that if the school board had sunk the $3 million into Park street, instead of spending it on refabing the old Dufrane-Henry building in N. Springfield so it could be used as Elm Hill school and only using it for a year, Park street would still be open. Some basic math...
ReplyDeleteUpdate: http://eagletimes.villagesoup.com/p/board-sets-target-date-for-park-street-withdrawal/1251234
ReplyDeleteThe voters in 2010 voted at town meeting to close the building, and either see it sold to private sector or torn down. In other words "GET IT OFF THE TOWN BOOKS". I just don't understand why the wishes of the voters of Springfield aren't being carried out by the town manager and the selectboard. I agree, hold the school budget hostage until our wishes are carried out. If the school board and selectboard care about our students, they should move quickly As for the supervisory people that are still there, this move should have taken place in 2010, and if you have to find a place in Claremont or White River or Windsor, so be it. You've had going on four years to figure this out.
ReplyDeleteThis is just fiscally irresponsible and certainly not in the best interest of the tax payers (or the students).
DeleteThe vote that took place in 2010 was a non-binding referendum. Also the Town Manager and the Selectboard cannot force the School Board to close, sell or otherwise dispose of the property that is SOLELY the decision of the School Board. Also there should be minutes of the committee's meetings they are public record and have to be produced upon request.
DeleteDid I miss a meeting? When did the Town Manager try to force the School Board to do anything? Did a member of the Select Board other than David Yesman ever try to force a sale?
DeleteDemolish and replace with a cul de sac of patio homes that will offer modern housing and garner tax revenue for the town. The town needs to quite clinging to its pipe dreams of retaining and converting old properties that will never again provide the value that they were originally designed for. Move on Springfield and lose the fantasies. This is a depressed town with too few resources, and certainly not enough to devote to the whimsies of impractical ideas. Or, to be more plain spoken, Springfield is a town with a beer budget that cannot afford the caviar tastes of its dreamers.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if you noticed, but there aren't a ton of people out there willing to buy the property to build the homes you so desire. There are even less people that are willing to buy the homes once they are built. We have plenty of houses for sale in this community. Your town and school district are dying because of poor leadership. It is easy to say "Demolish and replace with a cul-de-sac of patio homes that will offer modern housing and garner tax revenue for the town", but that is a bigger pipe dream than the town owning the school and revitalizing it as a mixed use property for parks and recreation, town offices, senior center, etc.
DeleteI don't know if you've noticed, but there are damn few brand new properties available for sale in Springfield.
DeleteBy the way, a proposal for new homes is one that would be privately funded at no risk to taxpayers, unlike the euphemistic "mixed use" nonsense that would, yet again, put the financial risk squarely on the backs of the taxpayers. I guess that Springfield has been without "private industry" for so long now that the only solutions considered possible are the socialistic ones. SAD...
Delete9:00 will you be investing in the development of these new homes?
DeleteAgain, the density of the matter between your ears prevents you from understanding the concept of private enterprise over public plundering. The town should divest of the fossilized remains of the early 20th century and the property upon which it sits. It should then be sold and a private entity allowed to utilize the site for what it deems productive and profitable, in turn paying taxes to the town.
DeleteAs it stands today, this place is a gigantic liability and an unnecessary expense to the town, but the petty free-riders like 9:24 prefer that the town continue to languish in its own waste and squalor. Pathetic.
Rumor has it that the BOS want to turn the building into a prison for women. Now wouldn't that help the image of "The Home of The Simpsons".
ReplyDeleteI thought the vote was to close the building "as an elementary school." Can someone send me a link to the text of the ballot where it says "close the building"? Anonymous 11:36, that area would not hold more than maybe one home, I wouldn't think...but if the building is to be demolished, do it quickly so it doesn't sit there for 20 years, empty, falling into ruin, and crawling with drug dealers and vandals. If the older portion of the building can be carefully demolished and "streamline" the building into the more recent portion, it could be a hub of small business start-ups, community programs, low-impact development and other small energy innovations (retrofit the old boiler system with small-scale biomass and compost heating, low-profile wind and solar on a green roof), technology start-ups, etc. At the very least, the School Board should follow up on the multiple recommendations for a feasibility study -- which would be big "carrot" for any potential developer or investor.
ReplyDeleteYou don't get out much, do you? That property could easily accommodate half a dozen patio homes. And please spare us the usual tripe about dilapidated Springfield properties becoming "hubs" for "small business start ups". That's just delusional thinking. It's Springfield, after all. All the nitwits seem to think that by whizzing more money down a rat hole, eventually the town will strike it rich. I swear that you're no different than all the other pathetic souls at the casinos that sit in front of the slot machines all day and night, feeding them nickels and quarters, and dreaming of striking it big. The only difference in this case is that the nickels and quarters for your habit are coming from someone else, and therefore the slow suicide that you are subjecting the town to is quite painless to you!
DeletePatio homes and Springfield VT just don't seem to sound like a good drink. Find me six buyers that invest before building I'd say let's go for it. I know myself I'd love to live across the street from a building that falling down on itself, a bar and drug dealers. Where do I send my deposit?
DeleteConverting Park Street School to a casino is a great idea!!!
DeleteI do not know why Vermont does not have a couple of casinos already. I would take one here in Springfield over a prison anyday.....Who's with me?!!!!!!
DeleteAm so proud of our School Board, it just brings tears of emotion to mine eyes. Why the courage to vote to leave without a place to go to and without any idea how much it will cost or its economic impact, where can you find such raw courage. Chairman Garfield dedicated to expand the ambience of Parks and Woolson farther up the street such compassion in throwing out a welcome mat to those poor persecuted drug dealers. Such a caring woman to provide them with habitat and a welcoming environment. Why it just makes me want to weep for joy her having extended this hand of cooperation with the despised, a true, true emotionally filled lady. The cockroaches on my porch, why they stood up and applauded this decisive act of valor -- clamoring for Nero to appear on stage with his fiddle to make the scene perfect. Springfield's finest hour I tell you.
ReplyDeleteBoss Hogg, you are so right on
ReplyDeleteI say paint a nice big mural (painting) on it.
ReplyDeleteLots of bright colors.
That should take care of it.
Everyone is happy.
I'am so happy like a room with a leaky roof.
I'am so happy happy happy
I like it, I like it, let's all be a cheering squad, that's the only thing missing. Let's show some town spirit, we have the leadership we deserve and look at the growing business sector it has inspired. Where else can you order your favorite escape substance with the fastest internet on Earth. Why, the entrepeneurism is so strong here. We have all the necessary ambience and the school board is vowing to do its part by donating another abandoned building in the middle of town Why I bet that new Neighborhood association up the street is just beside itself with joy. Oh happy day!!
DeleteArgh. Just read 40 posts and my head hurts. Fiscal responsibility this and all about the kids that. I like the casino/women's prison idea. A casino run by incarcerated women. Its a win win
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea, why doesn't somebody walk through Park Street School right now and find out all the existing uses it is currently being used for and expand on what is already working instead of dreaming up some other use that will take years to implement.
ReplyDeletePeople walk around the building wondering what they should do with this building as they walk through filled office spaces, as they try and talk over the events going on in the gym and the theater, as they walk through a crowded display filled art room being used by kids and step over kick balls on the playground and comment on what a nice garden is being grown out back..etc...etc.. etc...
It's a severe case of Eyes Wide Shut.
That sounds way too sensible.
Delete