By Holly Crocco
The Brewster and Carmel central school districts are considering a borderline adjustment that would allow all potential students that may reside in the proposed Fairways housing development planned on Route 6 in Carmel to go Brewster Schools, instead of being split between the two districts.
Camarda Realty Investments is in the process of developing 185 acres between Putnam Plaza and Route 312, with Gateway Summit offering age-restricted senior housing, and The Fairways offering family housing. Currently, the school district border runs right through the site.
“This housing development actually bisects the Brewster and Carmel school border line,” explained Victor Karlsson, assistant superintendent for finance and operations at Brewster Schools, during the Oct. 22 Brewster School Board meeting. “So the assessor made a recommendation that the school boundary line be amended to accommodate the housing development. So in other words, this area would go to Brewster Schools exclusively.”
The matter needs to be approved by each district’s school board – after being addressed publicly – before it can be sent to the New York State Education Department for approval to amend the boundary line.
According to Karlsson, environmental assessment review projections predict 93 students residing at the future housing development, with 68 going to Brewster and the remaining 25 going to Carmel, if the district boundaries remain.
“This would change that boundary line so there is not bisecting of any of the buildings,” he said. “So this would then shift the boundary line to allow all students, for their best educational interest, to attend one school rather than have a neighborhood chopped up by a school boundary line.”
Karlsson noted that the district’s enrollment is down 128 students, “so to add 93 back is not a material number whatsoever.”
Brewster School Board member Jamie Callanan expressed concern that the recommendation to adjust the boundary line came from the Town of Carmel assessor, especially after an earlier proposal suggested the students to all go to Carmel.
“I don’t understand why would be getting potentially 93 children that currently would reside in Carmel,” she said. “Carmel did raise their hand and say ‘we want all of those,’ and then Carmel went and got into a bit of a pickle, and now it’s ‘oh this looks like it would be good for Brewster.’”
Callanan noted that the Town of Southeast assessor is not involved in the process on Brewster’s end.
“The challenge that we have is, even though we have that declining population, we have an increasing budget each year, and you have about $10,000 per household that may come in on taxes – let’s just assume today’s rates, not in five years when it’s all built,” she said. “And we spend about $38,000 per student to educate… We’re talking about an influx of what could be 100 kids onto our rolls that you are busing to a further location and so forth.”
Callanan elaborated that she supports moving the entire development into one district or the other.
“I wasn’t expecting a Carmel location to be picked up and put into Brewster,” she said. “The logic is sound until you get to, they all go to Brewster when it’s in Carmel.”
Karlsson added that, by these properties coming into Brewster schools, it would have an impact on the tax rate.
“It would actually alleviate the tax burden on all remaining residents,” he said. “So there would be a financial benefit to the taxpayers” in terms of how the tax levy is disbursed. “Having a greater population to disperse the tax burden would be a greater benefit to all the existing residents of Brewster Central Schools,” he said.
But, Callanan countered, it also comes with the cost of added resources for added students.
Brewster School Board President Kerry Cunningham said it makes sense for Brewster to accept all the students of the proposed development.
“The whole idea behind this, I think, is to have all the kids who live in this development all go to the same school district, which sounds like a great idea,” she said. “And if 60 of them were already going to be in the Brewster School District if we didn’t change the boundary, then I imagine that’s why” Brewster would get them all.
Comments