Oct. 13, 2010, 7:12 p.m.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.- The Syracuse City School District (SCSD) Board of Education will meet tonight to discuss new locations for classroom space, which will be needed when two of its schools undergo renovations this spring.
The SCSD had originally planned to move 1,600 students from Dr. Weeks Elementary School and H.W. Smith K-8 School to temporary classrooms in the Syracuse Developmental Center.
For the deal to work, Health Consortium-USA, a Texas-based developer, was supposed to buy the property and spend $13 million renovating it. However, the plan fell through when the private developer failed to sign the lease before the deadline of midnight last night.
The new plan
Syracuse schools Superintendent Dan Lowengard will discuss the next best plan, as well as other options, at tonight's Board of Education meeting.
Ned Deuel, Vice President of the Board of Education, says that the most challenging aspect of finding a new plan will be sticking to the original schedule for the renovations.
"We've got to find another way and we intend to do so with as limited of pushing back of the program as we can," Deuel said.
The main plan that will be proposed tonight involves moving students from Dr. Weeks to three separate sites in early 2011, which will allow renovations to continue as planned. Construction will still begin at H.W. Smith in either April or May, but students will still remain in their school until at least next fall.
A rough road ahead
Deuel says that the new plan will not be as easy to carry out as the option of using the Syracuse Developmental Center.
"I think the superintendent will present several options," said Deuel. "None of them are as good as the ones we had with the center that fell through, but they're plans that we have to use because we don't have another facility like that."
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