New elementary system structure for Poughkeepsie city schools. What it means for students.

Since the fall of 2023, the Poughkeepsie City School District has been working toward restructuring the five elementary schools within the district.

Research was presented at Wednesday’s Poughkeepsie City School District School Board special meeting and workshop. This two-part process included the restructuring of the elementary schools and a decades-long concern for City of Poughkeepsie’s youngest students: bussing.

“When I came on board as superintendent in 2019, one of the things that parents resiliently stated is that we would like to have transportation in our school district,” Superintendent Dr. Jay Rosser said.

As it stands, students attending any of the elementary schools walk to school each day. In the case of the Poughkeepsie City School District, many parents rely on their grown children to escort their younger siblings to school each day.

“This will assist us in increasing attendance, decreasing chronic absenteeism, increasing student achievement and ultimately increasing student graduation rates,” Rosser said.

The two-part plan was formed in response to families’ concerns regarding the safety of students walking to school. The district has been working with partner organizations to receive “Child Safety Zone” designations, making the district eligible for state-funded aid for transportation.

The restructuring would allow for students greater than a half-mile away from the school to be bussed in, as part of the Child Safety Zones.

“A yellow bus is the best place to put a student to keep them safe,” said Paul Overbaugh, a consultant for the bussing aspect of the project from Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES.

What the PCSD restructuring will mean for elementary students

Currently, four elementary school buildings — Morse, now Sojourner Truth, Krieger, Warring and Clinton, now Roberto Clemente — are serving first through fifth grade, and one, the Early Learning Center at Smith School, is serving pre-K and kindergarteners learners.

Additionally, many pre-K students attend partner organizations outside of these schools. That means students are attending two or three different school buildings within the first three years of their education.

The restructuring would reduce the number to one or two schools, depending on whether the child attends pre-K at one of the partner organizations instead.

• Samuel F.B. Morse Elementary School, now Sojourner Truth Elementary School: Grades pre-K to second

• Krieger Elementary School: Grades pre-K to second and dual language pre-K to second

• Smith School, Early Learning Center: Grades third to fifth and dual language third to fifth

• Warring Elementary School: Grades third to fifth

• Gov. George Clinton Elementary School, now Roberto Clemente Elementary School: Grades third to fifth

Those who attend Krieger Elementary School for pre-K to second grade would go to either Smith School, Early Learning Center or Clinton Elementary School, now Roberto Clemente Elementary School.

Those who attend Morse Elementary School, now Sojourner Truth Elementary School, for pre-K to second grade would go to either Smith School, Early Learning Center or Warring Elementary School.

Another crucial note that would impact students would be the time school begins. With the reconfiguration, the younger students at Krieger and Morse, now Sojourner Truth, would begin at 8:30 a.m.

The older students at the Warring, Smith and Clinton, now Roberto Clemente, schools would begin at 7:45 a.m.

For more information on why the Poughkeepsie City School District is reconfiguring the elementary schools and the benefits it may present, visit sites.google.com/poughkeepsieschools.org/elementary-reconfiguration/home.

Aid available to cover costs to bus students in at no taxpayer expense

Communities must approve transportation during the City of Poughkeepsie’s budget vote in May. However, taxpayers will not be affected by this initiative as funding has been secured.

“This will not have any tax implications on our taxpayers here in the City of Poughkeepsie,” Superintendent Rosser said. “We’ve been able to identify funding to be able to support Year 1 of this.”

Following Year 1, the transportation state-funded aid will kick in, which would account for 81.5% of the cost with the district’s fund balance covering the rest.

The transportation services, if approved by voters, would offer bussing to students up to the fifth grade who live over 0.5 miles away from their newly designated school with the reconfiguration and live in what would be a Child Safety Zone.

Overbaugh noted certain parameters must be met to determine if an area of the City of Poughkeepsie can be designated a Child Safety Zone, in which the district is eligible to receive state aid.

Criteria for the zones are various hazards that deem whether the area of the city is unsafe for walking to school, such as hazardous highway intersections or highways without sidewalks or inadequate shoulders, highway-railroad grade crossings, high traffic areas, high density of vacant buildings or structures, high speed limit and high instances for violent crime.

“Busses are built in such a way — Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards — that they are the safest mode of transportation out there,” Overbaugh said. “They are 10 times safer than your personal vehicle.”

Additionally, Poughkeepsie City School District and Franklin-Essex-Hamilton are working with BusRight to evaluate demographic data and create bus routes. If approved, the district could then contract out to a company to acquire the busses.

More: Poughkeepsie School District renames 3 buildings after historical figures. See what they chose.

When would changes be implemented?

Now that the elementary school reconfiguration has been approved, the Child Safety Zones application must be submitted to the New York State Education Department by March 1, and then bussing must be approved by voters in May 2025.

If these items go according to the City of Poughkeepsie Central School District’s plan, the district hopes to implement this in the 2025-26 academic year.

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Poughkeepsie restructures city elementary schools, adds bussing

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