Valley Central Board members, staff and consultants listened for an hour last week as residents made their case to have an elementary school in the Village of Walden.

Valley Central School Superintendent Evette Avila moderated the meeting attended by approximately 50 people last Thursday at the Valley Central High School auditorium. The Town Hall followed Architect Tom Ritzenthaler’s presentation of four options in his report on the future of the school at the October 30 special school board meeting. Those options included renovating the existing Walden Elementary School on Orchard Street; renovating and building an addition to the existing Walden Elementary School; razing the building and constructing a new school building at the same location, or building a new elementary school building at a different location.

The Walden Elementary School Committee, chaired by Principal Gregory Heidemann, expressed its preference at the Oct. 30 meeting. They’d prefer a new school at a new location.

“And so tonight we are here to answer any questions and hear comments from our community,” Avila said, opening up the meeting for public comment.

George Hoeffner a fifth-grade teacher at Walden has taught at all the schools in the district since 2010.

“I graduated in 2005 here from the same school,” Hoeffner said. “My children will graduate from Valley Central. And I currently serve the Montgomery Fire Department as captain. I’m a Viking for life.”

He said only a new building can address the inequitable educational environment.

“At what point is it no longer cost effective to continue patching the building with Band-Aid style repairs? These included structural cracks and walls, classroom quality, annually painted hallway floors, handicap accessibility, students transferring buildings with leg injuries, damaged campus grounds with non-existent green space, capital project delays, internal and external security with constant door integrity issues, and the fact that all of the students that reside in the Walden community can’t go to Walden Elementary School,” he said. “These issues are rarely heard about unless you work in the building. Since that time, the district has completed a feasibility study, including the equity study of all elementary schools, identified BOCES data that population and enrollment is increasing.”

He said the school should have been maintained better, but if nothing is done, students will continue to work and continue to learn in an inequitable environment.

“We can’t lament that Walden Elementary was neglected and then do nothing about it. We all wish that it wasn’t this way. Our students deserve better than it’s always been this way,” Hoeffner said. “So my question to the administration in front of us tonight is how do you see these ongoing concerns being addressed without a new building?”

Bernadette “Bunny” Reichle, a former principal, said the building was in “pitiful condition” and asked that the district hold the referendum on the future of the school as soon as possible.

“I am so proud of the Walden School Committee recommending to the board a new school on a new site,” Reichle said. “That is what is necessary. I don’t care what anyone else says. I’ve been around long enough. I was principal in a very old building with lots of issues.”

She urged the school board move up the process that currently calls for a public vote on a plan in December of 2025.

“We need to move forward on this project and we need to do it quickly. The building is in pitiful condition,” Reichle said. “It was when George (Hoeffner) was a student there with my son. Let’s get going.”

Brad Conklin, Assistant Superintendent for Business, clarified the process, noting that the board of education must make a decision and then submit the project to the State Education Department for approval and feedback, before it can go to a public referendum.

“That will ultimately drive what everybody in this room and the community is going to want to know is ‘what is my share going to be,’ Conklin said. “How is it going to impact my taxes? So it will take some time to get that answer from the state.”

Mary Ellen Matise, a former Walden Village Trustee, presented a petition with 160 signatures to keep the school in the village.

“As community members, parents, and grandparents, we are concerned that the village of Walden will lose its neighborhood school, if a serious effort is not made to repair and or renovate the current structure at its present location,” Matise said, reading from the petition.

“And our concern and the concern expressed to me by 115 people on September 28th who signed this, was to keep the school in the village and for really for one main reason. And that reason is delineated in the village of Walden comprehensive plan,” Matise added. “It’s been in the comprehensive plan for many years. We started a full blown overview of a comprehensive plan in 2005, and we renewed it every five years since. And I don’t think that the issue about the school being in the village and the village’s intention of why they like it in the village has changed.”

She said walkability is important and keeping the school in the village is essential to its viability.

Former Walden Mayor Susan Taylor spoke next.

“Full disclosure, I served as a Valley Central School Board member for two terms in the 90s, right after the Coldenham tragedy,” Taylor said. “On July 1, 1958, people who had great foresight centralized the Valley Central School District. During that process, the three villages were concerned that they would lose their identity and sense of community. They were assured by that committee that that would not happen. And we were able to preserve that until Maybrook (Elementary School) was sacrificed for 700,000 pieces of silver.”

At the time of the centralization, Walden, Montgomery and Maybrook Schools were all K-12 schools that would be converted into Elementary Schools. Taylor said Walden was running two sessions at the time, because of the high volume of students.

“We were a blue collar community. We were the first elementary school eligible for free lunch,” Taylor said. “We have working people and a very diverse community. Our school has been the center and the heart of our village for over a hundred years.”

Taylor asked if the district has earmarked property on which to build a new school.

“Anybody ever walk around the village to see where there’s eight plus acres? Do you have the property yet? Because if you don’t, you let every land owner in the Valley Central School District know that you’re searching for eight plus acres,” Taylor said.

She asked to board to consider that people’s finances are strained now.

“They’re gonna be strained in the future,” she added. “We want everything wonderful for our children, but government needs to do with what we can afford, just like the families that live here have to.”

Don Berger, a Village of Montgomery resident, asked what’s best for the children.

“We need to give them the best opportunity to learn,” Berger said. “And Walden’s not it. That’s a horrific building.”

Becky Person, a Walden Village Trustee and former mayor, also wondered where the district might find eight suitable acres to build within the village.

“Taking it out of the village would be detrimental, and right now I can think of one piece of property that may be eight acres or so, which you’re talking about in the plan needs to be, and it’s under high tension wires,” Pearson said.

Jim Corbett said the district owes its children a facility with modern amenities, even if it’s not within walking distance of home.

“I fully support a new facility,” Corbett said. “A new facility on that ground would not suffice, would not do our children justice. We have 52 acres at Berea School and 34 acres at Coldenham Elementary School. I can’t see why some of that property couldn’t be used.”

Avila said several potential properties have been identified in the report but has not identified them, pending further feasibility study.

“We wanted to provide that information so that we knew at least there were properties to consider, but until the committee and the board ultimately makes a recommendation one direction or another, we wouldn’t go to the next step,” she said.

Avila closed the meeting by acknowledging Walden Elementary staff in providing a solid educational experience.

“They are an extremely dedicated staff and besides what happens with the physical building they have created a warm, caring, loving environment where they teach our children every single day from their heart and soul,” the superintendent said. “and I just wanted to say thank you for that and thank you for your continued love and dedication for our children and doing best for them every single day without a second thought.”

She urged everyone to “remain engaged during this process because it’s a process for all of us to contribute.”