SAUGERTIES FAMILIES!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND SCHOOL BOARD ARE PLANNING?

How do you feel about voting YES to the Capital Project Budget, only to be told merely months later ONE of our beloved elementary school buildings will be CLOSED next year? Feeling short changed? Misled? Kept in the dark? Flat out lied to? Yeah...Us too...

The Superintendent of SCSD, Kirk Reinhardt, backed by a majority of our BOE wants to close one of OUR elementary schools and restructure the remaining to a grade grouped or Princeton Model. Historically, this has shown to have NO EDUCATIONAL benefit to students, and NO PROVEN COST SAVINGS, OUTSIDE OF THE IMMEDIATE SAVINGS FROM STAFF CUTS. ALL on the tail end of a pandemic which still finds students struggling with learning loss and social/emotional issues!

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR FAMILY

• Your kids may be in multiple schools, with different busses to pick up/drop off your kids at staggered times. One local district who switched as late as 5pm!

• MUCH LONGER BUS RIDES TO AND FROM SCHOOL throughout the SCSD 72 sq Mile District.

• A new school every 2 years, based on grade. One model suggests separate buildings; K-2, 3-4 and 5-6.

• Up to 50 Teachers, Aides, TA’s and Staff will immediately lose their jobs as a result of this model!
• Children’s education will suffer, as nearly every class will see an increase in class size numbers 
• Neighborhoods, families, siblings, critical fund-raising PTA groups and booster clubs will be split apart. No sense of normalcy for our already anxious, post-pandemic children.

As a tax payer, if the school closed is near you, it will negatively affect on your assessments, as the value of your property will drop significantly. Will the closed school property be resold? New housing developments and homes are under construction all over Saugerties. Where will those kids go?

Ask yourself...Why do we have so many high paying positions in the District while enrollment has been declining since 1994? Can we justify a Superintendent and Asst. Superintendent, Director of Pupil Personnel, Curriculum/ Instruction, Human Resources and Special Education, Accountant, Business Administrator? 

By signing this Petition, you send a clear message to Tell the BOE that the increased needs of our students are best met by those in direct contact with them daily; Teachers, Aides, TA’s and support staff. Tell them we need to keep ALL of our schools open for our kids! Tell the BOE and Superintendent NO to Princeton Plan! You also acknowledge you’ve been afforded the full knowledge of what information is available to us thus far, made as transparent as possible by the Facebook Group “Make Saugerties Princeton Model a Public Referendum”, its admins and supporters. 

Lastly, if the Saugerties BOE is unwilling to accept the overwhelming support of this petition as evidence of the community’s opposition to its plans, then this petition demands that the decision to close/repurpose one of our schools and restructure the district’s remaining elementary buildings be put out for PUBLIC REFERENDUM before any formal decision is made.