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District to consolidate primary special-education classrooms at Park Terrace; elementary start/end times proposed to change
Summary
The superintendent told the board the district will move primary special-education co-teach classrooms to Park Terrace to consolidate services and improve transportation efficiency, and proposed a 10–20 minute shift in elementary start and end times to reduce bus run strain; the superintendent apologized for poor communication and said parental requests will be prioritized.
The Gloversville City School District superintendent announced at the June board meeting that the district will shift its primary special-education co-teach classrooms to Park Terrace to consolidate services, reduce travel time for service providers and centralize special-education administration.
“We did it for a number of reasons,” the superintendent said, describing the plan as intended to improve continuity of programming, professional development and transportation efficiency. He said the district will maintain a request list so families who asked to keep a student at Park Terrace would be considered in order of when requests were received.
The superintendent said the move will affect families "who live north of 1 Avenue who initially or used to attend Park Terrace," with some students reassigned to Kingsboro. He described an operational rationale: service providers are paid to travel across the city and consolidating classrooms reduces duplicate travel and staffing inefficiencies.
Closely tied to the reconfiguration, the superintendent proposed a modest shift in elementary start and end times to ease pressure on bus sequencing. He said high school buses currently leave campus at about 2:40 p.m. while elementary dismissal is at 3:00 p.m., creating a 20-minute gap that requires extended staff supervision and complicates routing. The district’s proposal would move elementary dismissals roughly to 3:10 p.m. and 3:20 p.m. in order to align bus runs and reduce on-site supervision burdens.
“Having a common start and end time in those three buildings creates hardship for parents and creates hardship for our transportation department,” he said, adding that the proposed times are within contractual provisions and near neighboring districts’ schedules.
The superintendent acknowledged families’ frustration with how the matter was communicated and apologized: “we did not do a great job of engaging them… I pride myself on being transparent and communicative. So, we can do better.” He invited board representatives and central administration to meet with staff and parents to discuss specifics.
No formal vote on the reconfiguration or the start-time proposal was recorded in the meeting minutes; the superintendent described the special-education change as a district decision and called the proposed start-time adjustment “my recommendation right now.” The board did not adopt a final schedule at the meeting; next steps were limited to continued discussion and outreach to affected families and staff.
