From: Keith Yarger
To: Southern
Tioga School Board
Date: May 29, 2013
RE: Superintendent
Recommendation for School Consolidation
Dear Board,
In light of the funding shortfall and that PDE is now recommending something to the Governor
that could ultimately eliminate our reimbursement for capital projects, I would
like to formally make my recommendation to you for consolidation. I would like you to take action on this at
tonight’s meeting or on June 3rd.
One goal that the school board made just a few months ago
and all agreed to, was to have a school in each community as long as feasibly
possible. I really believe in this goal
as well. By giving back the majority of
the borrowed money, I believe that we can still reach this goal.
My recommendation is to remain status quo for the 2013/14
school year. During that time, the
furloughed professional employees would have the furloughs revoked and the
district would run on the same schedules as it did for the 2012/13 school year,
with the exception of the added vocational classes. During this time though, the district should
hold another 780 school closure hearing for the North Penn High School . I would recommend that the school district
hold this hearing in the fall so the school can be officially closed before the
Winter Holiday to allow for ample preparation on the transition. This would also allow the administration to
concentrate on a direct plan and focus more on academics. The extra cost for transportation to have the
NPHS students attend both Liberty High School and Mansfield High School would
be in the range of $218,000, with reimbursement each year after that taking the
cost down to $74,120, APPROXIMATELY.
By closing North Penn in the fall, the board will then be
able to give out furloughs for the building closure next year to meet all of
the laws required for furloughing professional staff. During the course of the 2013/14 school year,
I would recommend the district use some of the bond money, to put a new roof on
Blossburg Elementary (which Shane Nickerson said would cost approximately
$250,000), put a new floor in the school (which we received a price of
approximately $27,000), Secure the school with a secure entrance at the office
and playground area, eliminate the two story structure of the high school
during the summer of 2014, and make the kitchen of the elementary one that can
prepare food for the elementary students before the 2014/15 school year begins.
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Also, during the course of the 2013/14 school year, I would
recommend doing the $2.1 million in repairs or less at the Liberty schools. The total of the repairs to the Blossburg Elementary School , the Liberty Elementary School ,
and the Liberty High School would be in the range of
$2.4 - $2.6 million. I would then
recommend using some of the money to fix the mortar problems at Mansfield High
School as well as some asphalt repairs at each of the buildings, bringing the
total to be spent to close to $3 million.
I would encourage the district during the 2013/14 school year to poll
the students to find colors that would be the same in the two high schools,
mascots that would be the same, and change the names of the high schools to
“Southern Tioga North, and Southern Tioga South”. This way, when and if we do consolidate to
one high school in the future, the colors and mascots would already be the same
and the only thing the district would need to do is take off the end of the
name of the school, “North or South”.
Looking long
range…..
Mr. Loudenslager’s wife stated at a board meeting after Mr.
Loudenslager did an inspection of the Liberty Elementary School and that we
really do not need to do anything to the Liberty Elementary School, with some
exceptions to the mechanical, as it was in good condition. With that, if the board would put the minimal
amount of the bond into the schools at Liberty ,
as stated by Mr. Loudenslager, we should be fine in the Liberty area.
Stuart Hopkins, Derek Wheeland, Glenn Shaffer, and Tim
Kreger were contacts in the Liberty
petition to begin working on a charter school in the Liberty area.
243 students would be lost to the charter school from the preliminary
numbers given to the district by people signing the petition that are currently
attending the Liberty
area. If this would transpire, we would
need to fund the charter school in 3 ways.
We would need to raise taxes paid into the district by the community, we
would need to cut programs, and/or we would need to close more schools. If the charter school would open and we would
lose all of those students to the charter school causing a decline in
enrollment in the Liberty
area, this would leave the Liberty
High School sitting
almost empty. At that point, I would
recommend closing the Liberty High School and moving those few remaining
students up to the Mansfield High School to preserve our programs and cut
costs.
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With Blossburg
Elementary school
remaining open, the centralized location would allow for the locker rooms to
remain open for all sports and music that are currently using NPHS as the point
of consolidated origin such as marching band, football, wrestling, and
track. Although these sports would not
be permitted to keep the North
Penn High
School name due to PIAA guidelines, they would
still be stationed at Island
Park . The names of the teams would then need to be
either Southern Tioga North or Southern Tioga South. The Marching Band already holds the name of
“Southern Tioga Marching Band”. The
community would be keeping the auditorium as well for community events, and with
the demolition of the two story structure of the current high school, the
elementary school would have a larger field to play on during recess time while
the band would have a nice field to practice on after school. The cost of this would not raise the transportation
costs for after school activities as the buses are currently already running
these routes.
Making the schools safe and secure by placing the safety
features presented by Quad 3 in the buildings now should be our number one
priority, and by putting the approximate $3 million into the schools to make
them functional, would allow the district to then set forth a maintenance plan,
which the district has never entertained in the past to my knowledge, to keep
the buildings current and running well without needing to take out a major
construction bond in the near future or for many years to come. This would allow the district to pay down its
existing debt and focus on the future for a centralized site for a true centralized
high school once the existing debt is paid.
Proposed Timeline:
May 29, 2013 or June 3, 2013 - Reject the closure of BES
June 23, 2014 – Have a moving company move NPHS teacher
belongings