Building renovations and site work at Huntington are anticipated to start in 2018. A new playground is proposed as part of the renovations. The District's Facilities Department has provided renderings of the proposed playground, which will include a variety of new play structures, benches and shade umbrellas, and new swings. As proposed, the playground will be in a new location, in the rear of the school just beyond the existing parking lot along the western edge of the back field (opposite where it is currently located). The baseball diamond that is currently located in that area will be moved to the east side of the back field under this proposal. The current playground area will likely be converted to an additional parking area. 

Check out the renderings below. You can also view a site plan here (as if you're looking straight down from above). (Note: the Facilities Department has indicated that an additional piece of equipment called "SwayFun," which is accessible to children with disabilities, will be added to the plans.) 

For more information about the proposed building renovations and site work, see our previous blog post. 

 Due to limited response from students, this event has been cancelled. 

Students in grades 5 through 8 are invited to participate in the Student Talent Show. Auditions are required, and are scheduled for May 9, 10, and 11 between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. Students must have a signed permission slip to participate in the audition. See the flier for full details and the required permission slip. Performances must be appropriate for young audiences ("G-rated") and no more than 3 minutes long. Students must supply their own music and props. The show will be held on Thursday, May 25 at 6:30 p.m. All community members are invited to attend! 

As part of the annual school review process, the administration at Huntington School is conducting a parent survey. You can download the survey here. The survey asks questions about parent interactions with school personnel, communications, student services, and school climate. Your feedback is encouraged! Download the survey and return completed surveys to the Main Office. 

A Community Meeting was held at Huntington on March 23 to inform the school community and neighbors about the upcoming renovations at Huntington, which are expected to start in 2018. Representatives from the district's Facilities Department along with the architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, and construction management firms involved in the project gave a presentation and answered questions. The presentation is now available here for review.  

The total project budget is $22.5 million, with a significant amount of that budget to be spent on accessibility improvements (to address compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA) along with safety and security upgrades.

Proposed major changes include:

• new, secure front entry vestibule;
• new elevator;
• bathroom upgrades throughout the building;
• removal of carpet;
• relocation of the playground;
• window replacements; and
• traffic flow changes around the building, including a "bus loop" in the front of the building.

A proposed site plan and renderings of the front of the building are included in the presentation, along with a more detailed list of interior improvements. 

The PTO Executive Board previously submitted comments on the initial proposed plans (originally presented at our January 19 meeting). 

Do you have additional comments or questions about the proposed plans for the building? Please send comments to huntingtonschoolpto@gmail.com and we will share them with the Facilities Department. 

On Friday, March 24, 2017, Huntington will be hosting presentations about the appropriate use of social media - and the consequences of inappropriate use - for middle school students. Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend. 

Presentations are by grade level, as follows: 

6th grade: 8:15-9:00 a.m.
7th grade: 9:00-9:45 a.m.
8th grade: 9:45-10:30 a.m.

All presentations will take place in the cafeteria. 

All middle school parents should have received a letter from Pricipal Harlow providing additional information about the presentations and the school's concerns with use of social media. Please contact the school with any questions. 

The New York State assessments for students in grades 3 through 8 are scheduled for March 28-30 (English Language Arts) and May 2-4 (Math). All parents should have received a letter from Superintendent Alicea about the upcoming tests, detailing the recent changes to the tests (in response to concerns expressed by parents, students, and educators) and providing tips on how to help your child do their personal best. The Huntington administration also sent a letter home with students providing additional information about the tests and the testing procedures at school. Please review this information, and contact the school with any questions. 

Catalogs and order forms for the Gertrude Hawk Chocolates sale were distributed to classrooms last week. ORDERS ARE DUE FEBRUARY 28. You can use the order form enclosed in the packet, or place orders online.

​For orders using the paper order form: Keep the bottom (pink) copy and the catalog for your records and make sure all checks are payable to Huntington PTO. Please do not submit cash; the PTO is not responsible for cash submitted or lost.

For online orders: Go to http://www.gertrudehawkchocolates.com/fund-raising/programs/online-fundraising and enter Group No. 708137, then follow the instructions on the website. All online orders require payment with a credit card. 

Family and friends are encouraged to participate, but door-to-door selling is not recommended. 

We anticipate that orders will arrive at school the week of March 20.   

Please contact Emily Pascale at emcasey@hotmail.com with any questions on this fundraiser. 

​Thank you for supporting our school through this fundraiser! 

In response to the presentation and discussion at our January 19, 2017, general membership meeting, the Executive Board of the Huntington School PTO submitted the following email to Dean DeSantis, Interim Chief of Operations for the SCSD, on January 23. 

Dear Mr. DeSantis:

In response to the presentation by staff from Turner Construction, King + King Architects, and Appel Osborne Landscape Architecture at our January 19, 2017, general membership meeting, the Executive Board of the Huntington School Parent-Teacher Organization respectfully submits the following comments and questions regarding the proposed renovations for Huntington School.

We are very pleased to hear that the existing issues with accessibility and ADA compliance will be addressed in our school. The addition of an elevator in a central location, with access to the basement level, is crucial. The proposed reconfiguration of the front entry to provide accessibility and to create a secure entry for visitors through the main office will be significant improvements over the current situation.  We are also very glad to hear that carpeting will be removed from classrooms, and that bathrooms and locker rooms will be remodeled.

While these are all very welcome and much-needed improvements, there are some issues remaining that we feel were not adequately addressed in the proposal that was presented. These issues are listed below by topic.

Indoor environment and safety

• Indoor climate control MUST be addressed. The current environment is detrimental to student learning, with extreme heat and humidity at the beginning and end of the school year, as well as an uncomfortably warm environment in many classrooms throughout the winter.
• Huntington School has hosted multiple elementary schools for summer session in past years and some sections of the building are essentially unusable during the summer months. In addition, with some discussions both nationally and locally of school running year-round in the future, we believe it is short-sighted to eliminate air conditioning from the renovation plans.
• We understand that budget limitations may preclude the inclusion of air conditioning; however we would appreciate additional information about the overall cost breakdown and a comparison to the potential cost of air conditioning.
• If air conditioning is truly infeasible, then some alternative should be developed for addressing the extreme heat, humidity, and lack of air circulation in the classrooms. Ceiling fans, windows that reduce solar gain, and windows with large opening areas may be able to address these concerns. Please explore these options and offer design alternatives that will create an indoor environment that is conducive to learning.

Site design and circulation

• Please explain how the current design for the bus lane, parent vehicular circulation, and staff parking modifications was developed. What alternative designs were considered, and why were those eliminated?
• Please provide more details about your assumptions for the number of buses serving the school each day, the volume of vehicles using parent pick-up/drop-off areas, and the number of students walking to school. Have you factored into these calculations the potential for the district to reduce the walking radius?
•  Please clarify how drop-off and pick-up procedures will function with the new layout. How will safety be ensured for “walkers” that will have to cross through the new bus lane, as proposed? Where will parents (not in vehicles) be expected to wait outside for their students who are “walkers”? How is traffic expected to flow through the parent vehicular area? 
• The area in front of the school on Sunnycrest Road is wider than the adjacent blocks, yet it is signed as a no parking zone. How will your proposed plan address this inconsistency? Either the “no parking” zone should be enforced (and the sidewalk extended in front of the school to restore Sunnycrest Road to its proper width), or this area should be incorporated into the plans for pick-up/drop-off.
• Concerns remain about the quantity of staff parking. Staff parking projections should include additional staff such as foster grandparents and student teachers.

Playground

• We are happy to hear that the playground will be included in the renovations. Please clarify whether this will entail all new equipment, or simply refurbishment of our existing equipment.
• The equipment is outdated and graffiti is a continuous problem. The vandalism is likely due at least in part to the location of the playground, which is an isolated corner with no public view. Ideally, we would like the playground relocated to a more visible, public location for safety and to make this a community asset. Was this explored? If so, please provide more information on why this option was eliminated.
• If the playground must remain in its current location, then the access “alley” (next to the pool) should be improved and made more inviting and secure.  

Interior space requirements

• What are the enrollment projections for Huntington school and how were those developed? We are currently the largest K-8 school in the district (at 930 students based on NYSED 2015-2016 enrollment data), and there is no extra space in the building to accommodate any growth.
• Do all of Huntington's classrooms meet current NYSED size requirements?
• Our students deserve a separate cafeteria and auditorium. Our cafeteria is inadequate for the number of students; we have students eating lunch as early as 10:30 a.m. (only 1.5 hrs. after they are given breakfast!) and as late as 1:30 p.m. H.W. Smith school received a new auditorium and two cafeterias; we deserve the same.

Bathrooms, locker rooms

•  Please clarify the extent of renovations in the locker rooms, especially in the pool area. Lockers are in dire need of replacement. Toilet stalls and shower stalls also need to be renovated.
• If Huntington School will continue to be a polling place for elections, it would be useful to have a bathroom near the gym that is easily located by voters and poll workers.

Construction process

• The proposal seems ambitious to complete during the summer break. At the January 19 meeting, there was a passing reference to the work continuing over two summers. Please clarify the anticipated construction timeline. Is there a contingency plan for students if the work isn’t completed by September 2018? Is the use of swing space being considered and, if so, where?

The presenters on January 19 alluded to various options that had been considered, but dismissed. Yet none of these other options were presented to the school community for review and comment. A meaningful public involvement process should allow the school community to weigh-in on the prioritization of needs for our building, review various design options, and provide comment on those options, ultimately leading to a design solution that reflects the community’s goals. 

The Huntington School PTO Executive Board submitted an initial list of priorities to the Joint Schools Construction Board in August 2014, in response to public meetings held at that time. During the 2015-2016 school year, we made multiple inquiries to the Facilities Department about the status of the project and the potential opportunities for parent and community input, yet the January 19 meeting was the first direct contact that we have had with the project team. The project should not be rushed now to make up for a lack of public engagement over the past year.

We are excited that Huntington School will receive much-needed renovations in the near future. As noted above, we feel that the needed renovations go far beyond the proposed renovations and urge you to consider, to the extent feasible, expanding the renovation plans at Huntington School. As the largest K-8 school in the district, improvements at Huntington School are a sound investment in the future of our city.

Thank you for your attention to our comments.

Sincerely,
Huntington School Parent-Teacher Organization 2016-2017 Executive Board

Leeann Wiess, President
Ann Yarka, Vice-president
Angie Vigliotti-Martinez, Treasurer
Emily Pascale, Treasurer
Meghan Vitale, Secretary
 
 
Cc:          
Joanne Harlow, Principal, Huntington School
Jaime Alicea, Superintendent, SCSD
Linda Mulvey, Chief Academic Officer, SCSD
Nader Maroun, City of Syracuse Common Council, 5th District
Joint Schools Construction Board