To the editor:

The Pelham schools desperately need infrastructure improvements. It is disappointing, detrimental to our kids and frankly embarrassing that a town with a $1 million average home price, a country club and a world-class athletic club has yet to provide the funding needed—not for extravagant upgrades—but for basic requirements like Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and air conditioning in our schools. What’s more surprising is that funding these basic infrastructure upgrades is even in question—this all should have been taken care of years ago (probably for far less money), but yesterday’s failures do not justify continued short-sighted, bad decisions. Our schools are decades behind where they should be. This hurts our kids, it hurts our community, and for those who are hyper-focused on money, it hurts our home values too. I’ve seen this play out on Long Island, where I’m from. Families’ kids age out of schools, and those empty-nester parents suddenly decide the taxes are too high. The community ages, home values fall, the vibrancy of the town fades as families move elsewhere for better schools, and the town spirals. I don’t want that here, especially when our town has the resources to prevent it.

I understand that some will say all we should do for Siwanoy Elementary School is the absolute bare minimum—ADA compliance and AC wall units. I think wall units need no response—we’re better than that. As for ADA compliance, the issue is that this will eat into Siwanoy’s footprint, and the school is already over capacity. What’s more, schools in towns with far fewer resources do not share one room as a gym-cafe-torium. Again, our community should be doing more than the bare minimum for all of our schools, not just some. And of course, no school should have kids being sent home from school dizzy and dehydrated, nor should anyone shrug their shoulders when someone in a wheelchair can’t make it into the school to learn and be with their friends.

Lastly, I understand that there is a “Save Siwanoy” campaign. Let’s call it what it is; this is nothing but classic NIMBY-ism. And it’s at the expense of our children and our community more generally.

Let’s show our children that we care more about them than a tax increase that barely keeps up with inflation. And let’s do what we can to improve our schools for all the future generations of Pelham.

Christopher Gerson

497 Pelhamdale Ave.