The Rye City Board of Education says it was forced to postpone its planned discussion and vote to bring a to ballot on December 6 after receiving a letter from the City of Rye raising concerns about the impact on traffic from an upgrade of classroom space at the .
Rye City School Board President Laura Slack said the delay will make it impossible for the bond to make the ballot by December 6 and could delay the Fall 2014 completion of the project she says is sorely needed to meet future space demands at the facility.
"The kids will be here whether there is an addition or not, the children are coming whether on foot or on bikes or in cars," said Slack.
Slack said current conditions at the high school are already at "crisis level." The high school is currently at 104 percent capacity and will need 16 additional classrooms by 2014 to accommodate larger numbers of anticipated students.
Reached by email Tuesday night, Mayor Doug French disagreed that the issues raised in the letter would delay the project. He wrote: "The City has no objection to the BOE closing out the environmental review and completing the bond proposal -- and we conveyed such. There are potential concerns around traffic, parking and pedestrian safety that were raised, and we have asked the Board to consider these as the project moves forward. We look forward to working with them."
Slack said the board decided it could not vote to close the state required SEQR process affirming there will be no negative impact because of the project or decide upon a date to schedule the bond resolution for ballot until they responded to the issues outlined in the letter.
Because they did not vote on an election date Tuesday, it will not be possible to hold the election on December 6. Such an election must be scheduled at least 45 days after the board votes, Slack said.
The school board must table the issue until they confer with their environmental consultant and respond to the letter, she said.
Former board president and council candidate Josh Nathan said the timing of the letter and the time necessary to respond "may delay the project by an entire year." Time that Nathan said would have a negative impact on students.
"It's a crying shame that puts them at risk," said Nathan. "The economy had already slowed down this much needed project and now we must get it done."
Nathan said better communication between the city and board could have addressed any issues before this point in the process.
Slack said she met with Mayor Doug French and City Manager Scott Pickup on Tuesday, October 3 and neither of them conveyed any of the concerns contained in the letter which was received on Friday, October 7 at the Rye City school district offices. Because of the Columbus Day holiday, the correspondence was brought to the attention of the board on Tuesday and they discussed it before the meeting.
During executive session, the board decided the letter sent by the city manager raised issues substantive enough that a response will require the advice of their environmental consultant.
Reached by email Tuesday night, Rye City Councilman Joe Sack said concerns about the impact the high school project would have on traffic had been previously discussed by the council, but said he had no knowledge of the letter sent by the city manager last Thursday.
Also reached by email, Councilwoman Paula Gamache directed questions about the letter to city manager Scott Pickup and city planner Christian Miller, she characterized the letter as "thoughtful and thorough."
In the letter, which Slack said will be posted on the district website as soon as possible but did not make available on Tuesday night, concerns were raised about the impact the proposed expansion woud have on traffic.
The school board cannot fulfill its state-required environmental impact review without responding to the letter. Therefore, Slack said the scheduled discussion of the bond resolution and school board vote to set December 6 for public vote had to be taken off the Tuesday meeting agenda.
Editor's note: A link to the letter, posted on the Rye City Schools website Wednesday, has been added to this story.
It is my opinion that Christian Miller and Scott Pick up do their work diligently. With the number of issues they are presently dealing with it might be that they genuinely needed a couple of days to decide on an issue that impacts the City. It is unfortunate that traditional mail took the time it did because of the holidays, but with email available to all this issue could have been addressed and a decision made so as to avoid the delay - can we stop the finger pointing and resolve issues like adults. Traffic implications of the BoE proposal are also important considerations, the City cannot afford law suits with another traffic accident and besides there are families and individuals in this City who do not have children in the School system and to whom safety is a concern.
No one to this day has figured out how to resolve the crossing guard issues we are faced with around the RHS/RMS, yet we are focused on bringing more traffic & congestion to this area and spending millions upon millions for additions with little concern for safety, I DON'T GET IT! How about spending some of our/my money on CROSSING GUARDS!!!
I am further surprised that no one has raised the impact of the increased water run-off into the brook that will result from the new construction. The new building and shifted parking lot will reduce the ground area available for water absorption. How can the school board certify no negative impact from the construction? How can the City, that has continues to be inundated with concerns about flooding not have identified this issue in their letter?
Pickup needs to go. Anyone at City Hall who thinks he is doing a good job should be shown the door too.
http://ryecityschools.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/496886/File/Facilities/Rye%20City%20Letter.pdf?sessionid=3cc962ff3b1b1fae3a24b6038a336826 The points in the letter seem reasonable. The issue remains the communications - a.) why did no one from City Council tell anyone from the school board that this was coming? b.) why did it arrive so "late" in the process? c.) why did it take so long once in the school district's hands (letter says last Thursday, the 6th - 5 days before the school board meeting - to get to the Board?
It was evident from the meeting re. the Lesters Building that 1. Laura Slack had been in conversations with the City on a regular basis and had never encountered problems with the city until then 2. Mayor French prefaced the meeting by saying that a decision on the building would not be taken, so why was there so much rancour 3. Ed Shine knew about the City's position prior to the Lesters meeting. Why was this not communicated to Laura Slack or why did he not speak up at the meeting to clarify the City's point of view There is more to this story than just a lack of communication, to meet it still smells of political posturing. Scott Pickup is a very thoughtful person he is doing a job that is very difficult and the Council members are volunteers and not salaried employees. We can all voice our opinion and disagree without being disagreeable, our community can certainly put on a better face
Perhaps Pickup is a thoughtful person. His thoughts, however, are what's wrong with this city and what is damaging our reputation as a city. Thoughts like how can he coverup the Schubert mess, Hen Island, 2 votes of no confidence against the Police Commissioner by his cops, being less than truthful numerous times and being a puppet for Frenchy.
I stand on principals, I don't play favorites, if there are safety concerns I'm thankful someone picked up on them, no matter who it is!!! I work much closer with the City than the BOE, I don't comment on much of the school stuff for this very reason, I leave that up to you BOE regulars. But I am just as tired of my school taxes as the next resident, the City is forced to hold the line on raising taxes but it's okay for the school not to??? Enough already, lets FOR ONCE put our money into our infrastructure, especially in the safety sector! Like Ted said, we turned out just fine!
As top focusing on Scott Pickup, he signed the letter, but it couldn't have gone without the blessing of the mayor and/or city council. And it is the mayor and city council's job to provide governance to the staff. There seems to have been a slip up here at that level.
I have never known either Laura Slack or Ed Shine to be disagreeable at all, let alone in public. They are both examples of Rye's best face.
But the real issue is, and remains, the timing of the communication. Ms. Slack said that she met Monday (or Tuesday) of the week before the board meeting with the Mayor and yet nothing was said about the pending letter. How anyone could be so naive as to think a letter containing the sentence "The proposed mitigation measures suggested in the study are incomplete and inadequate." would NOT prevent the school board from postponing its vote is beyond me. How could NYS or Bond counsel accept a bond for which the SEQRA study was viewed by another governing body as "incomplete and inadequate" to stand? They could not. Either the City is getting poor legal advice or appropriate advice and discussion was not sought. One would hope that in the future, the City errs on the side of too much communication as opposed to too little.
Mayor French did preface what will hopefully be the final discussion about re-zoning the old CVS lot by suggesting that a decision not be taken. BUT not taking a decision is far different from voting to reject re-zoning, the ultimate and appropriate action. AND, without the significant public input that came before the City Council meeting and at the meeting, I doubt that Mayor French would have formed this opinion given the apparent readiness to approve re-zoning in August. The only thing that changed was the public outcry against the proposed re-zoning. No political posturing as near as I can tell. Just incompletely thought through / consulted / communicated issues. Both times.
But that is not the point. We have many problems facing us as a community and there is no reason why we cannot work more co-operatively toward a resolution (again by this I again mean the community at large.) The substance of my comment was regarding the lack of communication and the allegation in this Rye Patch article that the City Council was solely responsible for derailing the bond issue. If you send in a college application by regular post a week before the due date and the college sends you a letter two days before the due date a letter stating that your application file was not complete., you can send the college the required information the very next day but you cannot fault the college and allege that the college is to blame because of their tardiness. You need to take responsibility for your own actions!
I don't think your college admissions analogy is valid, however. College admissions is a formal process ( except with athletes and legacy admissions, I'm afraid) and usually doesn't involve an intervening meeting among individuals who enjoy an informal collegial relationship. You left out Yom Kippur and Columbus Day in your admissions process timeline as well. Finally, I've never known Laura Slack not to take responsibility for her own actions. You might do better to be shaking your finger at your friend Doug French who appears once more to be letting Scott Pickup take the heat here.