Syracuse school Superintendent Daniel Lowengard says he will present fall-back options next week for how to house students while their schools are under construction next year. Lowengard said Thursday during a meeting of the Joint Schools Construction Board that he presented the school board with options four or five months ago and he’ll revisit them with the board and...
View full sizeSyracuse schools Superintendent Daniel Lowengard.Syracuse school Superintendent Daniel Lowengard says he will present fall-back options next week for how to house students while their schools are under construction next year.
Lowengard said Thursday during a meeting of the Joint Schools Construction Board that he presented the school board with options four or five months ago and he’ll revisit them with the board and the city.
That’s because the plan on the table – to lease space at the former Syracuse Developmental Center – may fall through.
Lowengard declined Thursday to give the options to The Post-Standard. He said he wanted to discuss them first with the school board, possibly at a special meeting next week. Lowengard said the school board already considered the five or six options but the Developmental Center was the best choice.
That plan, pushed by Lowengard, would relocate students from H.W. Smith K-8 and Dr. Weeks elementary schools to the center. Private developers would renovate several buildings there for the district to lease for 15 years at a cost of $28 million.
The lease deal needs final approval from the Syracuse Common Council and some councilors have expressed new doubts about it since they gave initial approval in April. The council may vote July 12 whether to finalize the deal. Lowengard said he will bring the options to the school board and Common Council education committee before then.
The Post-Standard reported Sunday that the school district’s background check of the principals involved in the deal failed to uncover that one of them, Maurice Hoo, of Florida, has had $1 million in judgments and that he fought off a federal mail fraud charge and home foreclosure. The proposed buyer of the developmental center is Health Consortium-USA, a joint venture of Hoo’s REIT-Americas Ltd. and Houston-based Davico Realty Group.
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has said she’s requested from Lowengard a “viable Plan B” in case the city turns down the lease, and the Common Council has made a similar request, but Lowengard has said no other available spaces would work.
Trying to do the construction without relocating students would slow the work down and force the scope of the renovations to be scaled back, Lowengard has said.
Contact Maureen Nolan at 470-2185 or mnolan@syracuse.com.