Growth Difficult For School Districts, Taxpayers
As reported by the local CBS affiliate, one school district in New York has had a hard time estimating the growth in housing. "In the 90's, homes were built at a rate of 80 to 100 a year. The Gananda school district assumed the growth would continue. It planned for 500 extra students. It built a brand new high school."
"But housing construction slowed dramatically in 2001...only a dozen homes are going up this year. The students the district planned on showing up never did. In fact, some families moved away. The district's enrollment is just uner 1,200, where it was four years ago."
The taxpayers are footing the bill. "Homeowner Beth Platt is frustrated. "They've increased the size of the district in anticipation of students that aren't there...'It seems every year, taxes go up,' said homeowner Ray Salimbene."
The superintendent is open to ideas. "It's a reality check, and it's sort of like saying we just can't continue to do this. We've got to step back for a minute, and collect ourselves... reinvent some things."
1 Comments:
I was one of the many Gananda residents that predicted this years ago. There were few facts to substantiat the growth projections. We we told that even though towns had restricted developement it was going to happen.
Now we have to see how we can face the reality that our popualtion didn't grow, but our facilities did. We don't need 3 schools at this point
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