BOCES close to deal for vacant school building
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The Kingston Board of Education has authorized school district Superintendent Paul Padalino to lease the former Anna Devine Elementary School in Rifton to the Ulster BOCES for use as an alternative high school.
At a board meeting Wednesday, Padalino said discussions with BOCES already have begun and an agreement should be reached quickly.
“It’s very close,” he said.
Charles Khoury, superintendent of the Ulster Board of Cooperative Educational Services, also expressed optimism that a lease will be reached soon.
“There’s a draft lease that’s gone back and forth between lawyers,” he said.
Khoury said the planned use of the building for an alternative high school follows a two-year hiatus for the program.
“We had one a couple years ago,” he said. “We closed it down. Our districts basically told us they would like us to reopen it.”
The alternative school program is for students who have not been successful in regular district schools due to family, behavioral, attitude or motivational reasons.
“Typically, these kids are on track to be lacking credits for graduation,” Khoury said, noting that many need “smaller class sizes where there is more personalized attention as well as supportive services for their social and emotional histories that they may be dealing with.”
The Anna Devine building, at 1372 Old Post Road in Rifton, also is expected to house some of BOCES administrative offices.
“We had a four-classroom trailer at our campus in New Paltz that was about 20 years old,” Khoury said. “The cost of replacing it would have been very, very significant ,and Anna Devine provides us with some ability to consolidate some of our operations into one place.”
Khoury said efforts will be made to have the alternative school ready for fall classes but that state approvals are needed before the program can move forward.
“It still has to be approved by the commissioner of education,” he said. “We would be planning on starting that alternative school program for September at that site, but I’m going to have to have a Plan B in case the necessary approvals don’t come to fruition.”
The Kingston school district stopped using the Anna Devine building in June 2012.