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Flag football

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The board heard a presentation about flag football last week from LPCSD athletic Jeff Nemec, who said there is “good student interest and enthusiasm” for the sport. Based on Nemec’s presentation, the district expects to field a team of 16 girls, six of whom would be exclusively flag athletes. The other 10 would be dual athletes participating in other spring sports in addition to flag football.

Saranac Lake Central School District created a girls varsity flag football team last spring. The Keene Central School District, whose athletic director spurred the creation of many teams at Section VII schools, also has a team.

Now approved, girls flag football will be added to LPCSD’s lineup of spring sports for the 2024 season.

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2024-25 calendar

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The board voted unanimously to approve a calendar for the next school year. The calendar includes a school start date of Sept. 5, 2024 and an end date of June 27, 2025. Winter break is set to last from Dec. 23, 2024 to Jan. 3, 2025, and spring break is slated for April 14 to 25, 2025.

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Mergers

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The school board approved two more athletic mergers on Tuesday night, merging the boys and girls tennis and girls varsity lacrosse with Keene Central School District. All of the teams are already merged with the Saranac Lake Central School District.

After fielding comments from parents and students at their last two meetings, the board also issued a response regarding a proposed athletic merger with Northwood School.

“After careful consideration and thorough deliberation, we do not intend to enter into a merger with Northwood to allow their privately enrolled students to participate on our teams,” the board’s response reads. “While we recognize the enthusiasm and support expressed by many on this subject, we feel our commitment is to provide the best educational and extracurricular experiences for all our students within the confines of the public school system.”

The board’s response went on to say that the decision was “based on a thorough assessment of our needs and those of our existing partners within the region.” To read the full letter, visit tinyurl.com/shc6zkym and select the March 5, 2024 school board agenda.

The district was approached by parents at Northwood School, a Lake Placid-based private school, last month with an informal proposal for an athletic merger that would allow day students whose families live in Lake Placid to participate in LPCSD sports. The district initially declined.

The matter did not come before the school board for a vote but was instead decided by the athletic department; the school board approves athletic mergers as they’re recommended by the athletic department, such as the other spring sports mergers approved at Tuesday’s meeting.

At the board’s meeting on Feb. 6, Northwood School and LPCSD parents turned out to speak in favor of a potential merger. At the following meeting on Feb. 27, LPCSD student athletes wrote letters to the board speaking out against any potential private-public athletic mergers.

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School buses

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Dana Wood, LPCSD assistant superintendent for business, finance and support services, said he had asked Karen Angelopoulos, clerk to the Board of Education, to pull a resolution the board had on its agenda for the meeting on Tuesday. The resolution approved the lease of three school buses. According to Angelopoulos, it’ll be on the agenda for the board’s March 19 meeting.

Wood said he wanted to explore other options that may save the district some money in the long term.

“I wanted to get some additional numbers about the possibility of purchasing the buses as opposed to leasing the buses,” he said. “What I realized is, prices have increased to the point (where) … we’re looking at an additional almost $40,000 more because just the price of buses’ interest rates have doubled since last year.”

Wood said that the district leased three buses two years ago for an annual payment of $57,000. The three new buses the school board voted to lease would have an annual payment of $102,000. Because of this increase, he said he wanted to explore if it was more cost-effective to purchase the buses instead of leasing them.

The district replaces its buses after using them for around eight years, Wood said. He added that this would help the district in the wake of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mandate that all school districts must only purchase zero-emission buses by July 1, 2027.

“Come 2029, we have three buses that are ours. Maybe next year, we do the same thing — we purchase it — so that by 2029, 2030, we have our hybrid bus fleet where we have gas and if the mandate still stays … we are then looking at purchasing (electric buses),” Wood said.

Board members agreed that the district would aim to have a hybrid bus fleet instead of totally electrifying the fleet in the next few years.

“There’s no way we’re sending a bus to Wells that’s electric. There’s no way,” Wood said.

“Let’s be honest, there’s no way we’re sending it to Wilmington, either,” said board member Ryan St. Louis.

The school board last discussed the electric school bus mandate last September. During the discussion, St. Louis and board member Colleen Locke raised similar concerns about electric buses’ capabilities during Adirondack winters. Electric buses have been tested in cold, snowy and mountainous terrains similar to the North Country, such as in a case study by the Blue Bird Corporation at West Grand School District in Kremmling, Colorado. The buses held up well in cold weather and on steep, unstable terrains, though the batteries did tend to drain faster when the weather was cold.

No electric school buses have made their way to the North Country so far. The closest district to receive an electric bus grant is the Adirondack Central School District in Boonville.

In September, Wood said that the district would likely purchase diesel buses before the mandate banning such purchases took effect in 2027. This would allow the district to have more time to explore electrification options.

“We have, for all intents and purposes, four years,” Wood told the Enterprise in September. “We’re waiting for, hopefully, the technology to improve, so that battery life is bigger, longer. And, price, hoping that as that develops and all that the price point will come down.”