Mar 14, 2006 By Jenny Susa 4 min read

BROWNSVILLE – The Brownsville Area School Board plans to make some decisions soon about the future of the district’s elementary schools. At the board’s agenda meeting Monday, board members said that they have been thinking about their options of either building a new elementary complex or renovating the elementary schools they already have for too long, and they need to decide which option will be best for the district.

Director Nena Kaminsky said that before they hire any new administrators, such as a new principal at Cardale Elementary, they need to know where they are going with the elementary schools.

“Even though a new elementary complex will be three or four years from now, I think we still need to know what we are going to do before we hire someone,” said Kaminsky.

President Rocky Brashear said his opinion is that renovating the elementary schools would not be the most cost-effective option.

“We can’t even plug in all of the computers in the labs at the elementary schools,” said Brashear. “We don’t want to spend a lot to renovate them all when it might cost less to build.”

Director Sandra Chan said that within the next month or two, the board should make a decision about the elementary complex and decide on the best location.

“Traffic patterns and all those sort of things need to be discussed,” said Chan.

Although the board has considered building the complex at the Redstone Middle School location, Kaminsky and Director Andy Dorsey commented that there are several good locations that should be considered.

Brashear said he would “remain open-minded” until the board had a chance to thoroughly discuss all the options, and decide if the district is financially stable enough to build a new complex.

In another matter, the board plans to take action on is the hiring of monitors for the walking track and weight room at the high school, which they are planning to open to the public.

Last month, Dorsey suggested meeting with representatives at the YMCA to see what they would charge to monitor the gym, cover insurance costs and implement fitness programs. He reported Monday that the cost would be $27 per hour for the YMCA to offer those services.

Chan said she thought the cost would be too high.

“That is about $17,000 for the school year and you would probably want to have it open in the summer too,” said Chan, adding that she liked the board’s previous idea of hiring monitors to work for $10 per hour.

“We could still engage the YMCA for special programs like yoga and aerobics and just charge each person for those programs,” said Chan.

The board also discussed whether they should charge a fee for the use of the facility. They had decided at first that they would allow senior citizens to use the facility at no cost, but others would be charges $100 each year.

Kaminsky pointed out that the taxpayers have already paid to build the facility, and she said she did not think anyone should be charged.

Superintendent Larry Golembiewski said that when anything is free, people have the tendency to place less value on it.

Chan agreed with his point, but said that since the facility was only going to be open to adults, she didn’t think vandalism would be a problem. She suggested charging $20 for every three months, and Dorsey agreed that breaking the fee into smaller payments would make it easier for local residents who wish to use the facility.

The board plans to vote Thursday on hiring monitors and setting a fee so that they can open the facility to the public.