The Liverpool Central School District Board of Education voted Dec. 1 to allow the district to relocate students during construction from September 2015 to January 2018.
Students at Chestnut Hill Middle School will move to Chestnut Hill Elementary, and CHE students will move to the former Wetzel Road Elementary School building.
The district moved Morgan Road Elementary School students to Wetzel Road during construction last school year.
Wetzel Road Elementary closed in 2010 after declining enrollment and a budget shortfall. It was used as the site for the alternative high school program FOCUS (Free of Obstacles Creating Unlimited Success) in the 2011-12 school year, but the school board opted not to continue the program.
Superintendent Mark Potter said the move would save the district about a year in construction time.
“If we didn’t move the kids, they’d be coexisting with construction,” Potter told The Star-Review.
Potter called Morgan Road’s transition to Wetzel “pretty seamless,” despite parent concerns about students adjusting to an unfamiliar building.
“All of that proved to be successful,” he said.
Potter said Wetzel Road gives Liverpool the “freedom to attack [renovation] projects” with minimal disruptions in student instruction. He said other districts do not have the “luxury” of having an extra building for “swing space.”
Potter said the district has no debt on the Wetzel Road building, and the relocation of students there during renovations makes Liverpool eligible for more state aid for capital projects. The district plans to replace the building’s roof in the future.
The district uses Wetzel Road for professional development and training for teachers and some extracurricular activities. Besides that and the need for “swing space,” Potter said the district has not made plans to repurpose the Wetzel Road building for academic use at this time.
