LIMESTONE, N.Y. – The Allegany-Limestone Board of Education
voted Tuesday to keep the Limestone Elementary School open during a
meeting at the school.

After weeks of protests, speeches, fliers, angry words and
tears, Limestone residents can breathe freely again. For now.

The board voted 6 to 3 against moving all activities in grades
kindergarten through fifth grade to Allegany Elementary School;
thunderous applause and cheers filling the gymnasium of the school
as the fifth “no” vote was announced by board member John Drake of
Allegany.

Also voting against the closing of the Limestone school were Ed
Bush, Dino Pezzimenti, Diane Benjamin, Greg Pearl and Gustave
Napoleon. Brian Eaton, David Deitz and Michael Watson all voted in
favor of closing the school.

An audience of easily 400 people gathered at the school for the
final vote on the matter.

Prior to the vote, board members heard more than an hour of
public comments – the majority of which showed most Limestone
residents were against closing the school.

Parkside Drive resident Chris Mackowski spoke first, saying “the
real bottom line is that this (Limestone) is our home.” He asked
the board to leave the school open, saying the best way for he and
other parents to raise their children the way they know how is to
be able to send them to school in their own community.

“I don’t need an out-of-town consulting firm to tell me what’s
best for my kids,” Mackowski said. “I already know.”

Limestone Mayor Ralph Bottone took the microphone after
Mackowski, telling the board members he sympathized with them and
that he would not want to be in their places.

Bottone, too, expressed he was against the closing of the school
before saying “I already know how you are going to vote. You think
I don’t, but I do.”

Bottone said based on the character of the people serving on the
board, he could predict that they would “tell the great
organization of people (at the meeting) that you’re going to keep
it (the school) open.”

The speaker who was probably the best received was an Allegany
resident -ðmother of two and an educator herself, she said. She
pointed out that it was really the state assessment test scores
that officials take into account when making decisions like the one
at hand.

“I had heard that the two schools had about the same scores,”
the Allegany woman said. “But that’s not true. Their scores
(Limestone) are higher than ours (Allegany),” she said, answered by
a resounding round of applause.

“In fact, they kicked our butt at the state assessment,” she
finished before walking back to her seat amid a standing
ovation.

At least two former board of education members spoke, asking the
current board to honor promises made during the original merger of
the school districts years ago. At that time, Limestone residents
were promised the elementary school would stay open.

Several students and parents took turns asking the board to save
their school – some wearing SOS (Save Our School) T-shirts, pins
and face paint.

One mother, her voice trembling with emotion, brought her
5-year-old daughter in front of the board, addressing the
transportation issue.

“This is my 5-year-old,” she said. “She’s tired now, but if this
happens, she will have to get up an hour earlier. This is her. I
just wanted you to see her. Five-years-old.”

Allegany resident Melissa Yaworsky voiced her opinion in favor
of the closing, saying she feared redistricting that may send her
children, who now attend Allegany Elementary School, to Limestone
should the Limestone school stay open.

“Get it over with and close the school,” Yaworsky said.

Board chairman Robert Phillip was quick to chastise the audience
for booing Yaworsky, reminding those attending that each was
entitled to an opinion.

Limestone businessman Rick Pecora told the board that from a
business perspective, the school was very important to Limestone.
Moreover, Pecora challenged the findings of the board’s feasibility
study, saying Limestone is on the verge of a growth spurt.

“Remember that when you’re thinking about this so-called
shrinking community,” Pecora said. “Your information (from the
consultant) may be have been misleading. It may have been
misleading on purpose, and you paid a lot of money for it.”

Before the vote was announced, board members agreed that if the
school were to stay open, changes would have to be made. Some extra
curricular programs may have to be cut, they said, and a more
detailed plan for action must be developed should the enrollment
continue to decline.

Bottone said after the vote was taken that the board had to make
a tough decision, but that the “loyalty and honor” of the members
contributed to what he considered to be “the right decision.”