At its August 24th Board Meeting, the
Unatego Central School District agreed to use the services of a consulting firm
to guide them in future planning for the district’s facilities plan. Alan Pole and William Silky, of Castallo and Silky in Syracuse, have
been selected to lead the School District Facilities Study.
The proposed study will examine enrollment history and projections, instructional and extracurricular programs, facilities, transportation, staffing, and finances and will culminate in a final report to the Board of Education in February 2016.
Although they will lead the study, Mr. Pole and Dr. Silky are also relying on input from a stakeholder committee comprised of community members, teachers, support staff, and administrators. This committee’s first meeting was held on October 15 at the Jr. Sr. High School. At this meeting, Dr. Silky and Mr. Pole worked with the committee establishing the parameters of the study and giving the members an overview of what the study would entail.
After reviewing the consultant’s presentation, the committee members came to a consensus on important information they learned which consisted of the following:
The district is experiencing declining enrollment which is expected to continue;
The district has excess space in its buildings;
The district is in financial difficulty;
The time that students spend on the bus should be considered as part of this study;
Keep the public informed about the progress of this study.
The meeting notes and PowerPoint presentation are now available on the Unatego District Website at http://www.unatego.org/FacilitiesStudy.aspx