Skaneateles police responded to a call the morning of Monday, Oct. 10, that Waterman Elementary School had been vandalized. They arrived to find a concrete parking barrier — said to weight about 100 pounds — smashed through a front glass door of the school and a kindergarten classroom window at the back of the school cracked, with a small hole where someone had thrown a rock through it. There was also broken glass pieces at the new concession stand behind the middle school, and chairs thrown over the fence at the track.
The cost to repair the damages will be more than $500, said Vinny Sicignano, the district’s superintendent of buildings and grounds.
“We don’t think anybody actually got into the school at this time,” said Police Chief Lloyd Perkins. The incident was written up as an act of vandalism.
Perkins said the incident occurred sometime between 11 p.m. Sunday night, Oct. 9, and 7 a.m. Monday morning, Oct. 10. Local residents called the police Monday morning after seeing the damage.
While nobody witnessed the vandalism, the school is currently checking its surveillance videos to see if the perpetrators can be identified, Perkins said.
“It couldn’t have been just one person,” he said, referring to the weight of the concrete parking barrier that no single person, “unless someone exceptionally strong,” could have lifted and thrown through the glass door.
By the start of school Tuesday morning — Monday was a vacation day due to the Columbus Day holiday — the Waterman front door had been repaired by the buildings and grounds staff, and the cracked window had a shade drawn over it and a replacement piece of glass had been ordered, said Superintendent Phil D’Angelo.
“This was just kind of a random, senseless act, but it is pulling away resources and money from the district where we already have a tight budget,” D’Angelo said.
The district has a $1,000 insurance deductable.
Sicignano said the bill for the new door was $280 and the replacement of the tinted window glass will cost about $250 dollars. The broken concession stand glass will cost about $100 to replace, he said.
“We cleaned up everything, got it all under control, no problem here,” Sicignano said.
D’Angelo visited Waterman Tuesday morning and said the students were fine, and having as normal a day as possible.
Perkins said the investigation is ongoing.
“This is something we don’t want to see a lot of, naturally, but these come in spurts every now and then, but well eventually catch the person who did this and deal with it,” Perkins said.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
