Syracuse, NY -- Eight years ago, the Rev. Robert Chryst gave the former St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School to the Syracuse City School District, hoping the mission of educating the South Side’s youth would carry on. But these days, the three-story, 47,468-square-foot building along West Colvin Street sits vacant and deteriorating, its roof leaking, its heat turned off...
Boarded-up windows are visible on the former St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School on West Colvin Street, in Syracuse. The building has fallen into disrepair in the years since St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, next door, transferred ownership of it to the city school district. But these days, the three-story, 47,468-square-foot building along West Colvin Street sits vacant and deteriorating, its roof leaking, its heat turned off and its broken first-floor windows boarded-up.
School signs still hang in other windows, relics from a bygone era. Shrubs and uncut grass flank the entrances, which once greeted as many as 1,200 schoolchildren each day.
There’s talk of demolition, which Acting Code Enforcement Director Mike Bova estimates would cost $500,000.
Less than three miles away, plans are in the works to overhaul the former Syracuse Development Center, so the school district can lease 219,000 square feet for $28.2 million during a 15-year districtwide renovation plan.
Chryst, the administrator of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, next to the former school, thinks the SDC lease is absurd.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “Why would you spend away when you’ve already got stuff and it’s going to hell? I don’t know how competent the people in the school district are. I have my doubts.”
The district said it considered the St. Anthony’s building first, but it isn’t accessible to people with disabilities, has no elevators, and lacks safety systems — such as egress windows —required by state law. Plus, it could hold only 300 students under current guidelines, far shy of the SDC’s 1,600-student capacity, said Thomas C. Ferrara, the district’s director of facilities, operations and maintenance.
He pointed out that state requirements for school buildings have become more stringent since the district began using the building in 1996. Rehabbing would cost several million dollars, since the St. Anthony’s building needs new windows, a new roof and a new heating system.
Chryst argues that the district knew all of the building’s shortcomings when it took ownership in 2003, but it chose not to invest in it.
The blight didn’t come all at once. The high school closed in 1974, the grammar school in 1992. The school district rented space there during renovations to Frazer School and McKinley-Brighton Magnet School, among others. Later, it had after-school activities and a program called Violence Is Not The Answer, or VINTA.
In 1995, Chryst became administrator of St. Anthony’s church and worked out an arrangement where the district would rent the school for six years before taking over ownership.
“It gave us money to make needed improvements to the church,” Chryst said. “We washed each other’s hands well.”
But, Chryst blames the school district and City Hall for letting the building fall into disrepair after the ownership changed hands in 2002. The school and the convent next door are owned by the city, which held the title for the school district, officials said.
Last winter, the city turned off the heat, causing pipes to burst, Chryst said.
When a fellow pastor wanted to use the convent as a center for ex-offenders, the city told him there was $600,000 in damage, he said.
“I don’t understand how the city school district can just walk away from their properties,” he said.
His opinion of the district’s maintenance workers? “As far as I’m concerned, they’re a bunch of idiots.”
The district vacated the building because it was no longer needed, Ferrara said. He disputed Chryst’s claim that the district neglected the building, saying $150,000 was spent on maintenance and utilities the last two years the district controlled it.
The city opposed the district’s abandoning the building in 2009, knowing it would become the city’s problem, said city Assessor John Gamage.
He said he was “very distressed” by the building’s condition after touring it early that year. He later addressed the school district board about it.
“The district left the building in very, very poor shape,” he said. “They didn’t meet any reasonable expectation of maintenance while they used it.”
In the shadows of the hulking brick school, Chryst preaches to about 200 at St. Anthony’s church. He said he’s clashed with the district’s maintenance workers, such as when he saw a school door open a few years ago.
“That’s all we need, somebody getting mugged or molested in there,” he said. The district told him it wasn’t its problem because the city had taken over maintenance,
he said.
After the school district took over the building, it eventually stopped cutting the grass, Chryst said, recalling a city codes inspector trying to cite the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese for overgrowth.
“You better cite yourself,” Chryst replied.
There are no ongoing code violations at the property, city officials said.
The district used the building for storage until vacating it last year, Ferrara said. That’s when the city was forced to take over upkeep, based on state law, said city spokeswoman Corey Driscoll.
For now, what’s being done is minimal, at both the school and former convent.
“To make the site a bit more presentable, the staff painted the plywood so it would be less unsightly to the public,” Driscoll said in an e-mail. “Other than mowing the lawn and routine monitoring to ensure the building is secure, there is no other maintenance going on at the building by city staff.”