by Rachel Hunter
Gouverneur Central School District Superintendent of Schools Jackie Kelly presented her monthly report to the Gouverneur Area Development Corporation (GADC) at the April 17 meeting at the Eldon B. Conklin Gouverneur Community Center.
GADC Chairman Alex MacKinnon of Fowler opened the floor to Supt. Kelly, asking her to update the board on progress of the Gouverneur CSD’s upcoming $57.38M Capital Project. Faithful readers of the Gouverneur Tribune Press will recall that the project was approved by District voters in December 2023. The project’s design phase commenced in January 2024, and is anticipated to close out with SED approval in November 2024. The project will go out to bid in January-February 2025, bids will be awarded in March 2025 and construction will start in late spring. Construction is anticipated to start in summer or fall of 2025 and continue through the year’s end in 2026. The estimated cost of the project is $57,380,000 for all the site work and work done at the District’s three school buildings and the bus garage.
“How is the school project coming?” Chairman MacKinnon asked.
“Good, we’re coming right along. We had our first round of stakeholder meetings in March. They went very well. Within the next couple of weeks, the architects will be coming back to meet with those groups again. At that time, they should have about 30 percent of the project’s drawings complete. We are still hoping to submit plans to SED by late summer at the latest. They are currently out about three weeks. We submitted the paving project for the Middle School at the end of August and we still do not have approval for that. I am afraid that by the time we get that back and put RFP’s we may be running into the fall, and that may be tricky to do. That may not happen for another year… But that is going along very well. Our architects are very receptive to ideas from the stakeholders. I think that is going along great. We are going to drill some test borings as soon as school is out. We’ll have two on each side of the high school building in the two parking lots that we own. That will be the testing to see how feasible that will be. So, that is moving right along.
“I’d also like to take a minute to talk about the budget,” Supt. Kelly said. “Currently, the budget that we have projected for the 2024-25 school year is $44,165,000. That is a 2.03 percent tax levy increase. Our spending increase is about 3.59 percent, and the reason for that increase is primarily due to incorporating many of the staffing positions that we created using federal funding. We have seen success with those positions, such as School Psychologist, Behavioral Support. We’d like to continue the after-school and tutoring programs. We’d like to continue the summer school program. So that is really the reason for that increase in spending. One other thing that is going to be in the budget this year is we are going to try to stock up on our buses, and in an attempt to be prepared for that shift, if and when it does occur, so we are going to look to purchase five new diesel-powered buses, one new gasoline suburban. There also will be two electric buses in the budget, but they are fully grant funded…
“Just one other thing that I wanted to share that probably most of you are aware of. We will be having some administrative changes during the summer and fall. I am very pleased to announce that Cory Wood has accepted the challenge to move into an Executive Director of Operations and Personnel position. I think Cory is the right man for the job, and I think we are going to see some great success in that area.”
Chairman MacKinnon then said: “So you are going to need to find a new high school principal?”
“That is going to be the challenge,” Supt. Kelly said. “Just like with the shortage of teachers, we have a shortage right now in good, qualified administrators.”
There was some discussion before gratitude was extended to Supt. Kelly for her report.
The Gouverneur Area Development Corporation regularly meets at the Eldon B. Conklin Gouverneur Community Center, 4673 NY-58, Gouverneur.