Newfield school district secures $200K in funding for public safety

For years, Newfield Central School District (NCSD) was unable to communicate to bus drivers when a parent requested that their child be dropped off at a different address from their usual stop.

With $200,000 of aid recently provided by New York state, the district will be able to improve its communication with buses and provide additional technology upgrades throughout the district.

In a release on Nov. 3, New York Assemblymember Anna Kelles said that NCSD would receive the money to purchase new bus radio equipment and Chromebooks for teachers and students.

Between $75,000 and $100,000 will be used for new bus radios, with the remainder of the money going toward buying new Chromebooks.

NCSD Superintendent Eric Hartz said that there are certain “dead zones” in parts of Newfield where buses and central stations within the schools can’t communicate with each other.

“If a parent called and said, ‘Don’t drop the student off at this address; drop them off at a different address,’ right now, there’s many places in Newfield where we can’t do that,” he said. “It’s a safety issue.”

He said that the money from the state would help transition NCSD to the Tompkins County Dispatch tower, which has a higher capability to handle calls. The money will also be used to get updated radios in buses, potentially by the end of the year.

“We were thinking we might not be able to get to this until the summer,” he said. “But we’re thinking with the money we have now and the help from the [Tompkins County] Emergency Response Center — and there isn’t a backlog on the radios that we chose — we can maybe have this done by December, early January.”

The safety issue is one that Hartz didn’t think the district would be able to tackle on its own. When he left Newfield Middle School as a principal five years ago (he became acting superintendent in 2020, tinyurl.com/2c629q96), NCSD was the second worst-off district financially in New York state.

“This is a problem,” he said. “This has been a major safety concern of mine, and I was only a middle school principal five years ago. Since I moved into the superintendent seat, we’re through a pandemic now, we’re really focusing on this with safety and security.”

Hartz said he’s attempted to get the district’s finances in order, but the bus radio project wasn’t one the district could tackle on its own.

“If you talk to the people in our district, the reason this hasn’t been done is that we’re looking at a $75,000 to $100,000 project for just the bus radios, and we haven’t been able to afford that here,” he said. “For us to have that pocket of money that is designated for that is allowing us to get what we need, finally.”

Kelles was able to offer that help, Hartz said, without a lot of red tape in Albany.

“[When] we reached out to [Kelles], we wanted to be really careful about what we were asking our politicians to help us with,” Hartz said. “We truly were in a disparity with our finances, and the bus radios were what triggered this for us because of the safety and security with our students and our families.”

Kelles said in a statement that she was excited to deliver state funding to rural areas that have been economically disadvantaged.

“I am proud to deliver this state funding to the Newfield Central School District and increase equity in the educational experience for all students,” she said. “It is critical, especially in the rural parts of the district, where we cannot rely on consistent cell phone coverage, that our school bus drivers remain in contact with the school district. These radios will increase safety and provide families with an extra sense of assurance when they put their children on the bus in the morning. And I am thrilled that Newfield School District will be able to purchase some additional Chromebooks for their students with these funds.”

Hartz said that NCSD and Kelles drafted a proposal together after conversations with her office. While Hartz said the funding was eight months in the making, he was happy to work with Kelles and her office.

“Originally it was for more money, because you shoot for high stars, but we were extremely happy to end up with the $200,000,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it was a lot of red tape, but it has to go through a process that was honestly a very easy process. We worked with her, she worked with us, and once it was submitted, it was a waiting game with the state. There’s only so much money that can be distributed through those avenues.”

Three weeks ago, NCSD got the approval of the state funds, and it started going to work.

Hartz worked with Randy Brown, a former Newfield Planning Board member who is now a Tompkins County legislator. He is also working with Mike Stitley, director of Emergency Response for Tompkins County Dispatch.

“Mike and his crew have been working with us for the last month, and we’re ready to get the ball rolling,” Hartz said. “We’re hoping within the next few months, we’ll put new radios in buses and we won’t have this problem anymore.”

When the radio project is done, Hartz said the district will move toward replacing the Chromebooks it has now.

He said the current Chromebooks were gifted by a different school district in 2020. Students got priority, but some teachers weren’t equipped with updated equipment.

“By the time we get done with this [bus radio] project, we’ll be looking to next year to purchase Chromebooks,” he said. “It depends on where you order Chromebooks — there’s a bit of a backlog.”

For now, Hartz said his main concern is getting students where they’re supposed to be. That’s why he’s prioritizing the bus radio project.

“It only takes one child left in a place they shouldn’t be, or one parent that isn’t able to get a hold of us,” he said. “That’s too many.”

Newfield Notes appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.