Frazier School Board discusses renovation project
PERRYOPOLIS – As the Frazier School Board moves closer to hiring an architect for an $8.7 million renovation project at Central and Perry elementary schools, school officials are considering the feasibility of operating one or two schools, based on state enrollment projections. According to the state Department of Education, reimbursement for school construction projects is based on the capacity of a building, which can be justified by present or projected student enrollment. The state also considers the size of the building and the district’s wealth.
For building additions or alterations, the Public School Code requires that an “appraised value” of the addition or renovated building be determined.
Frazier’s project will be subsidized with the refinancing of a $7.14 million bond issue from 1992 that produced roughly $300,000 in up-front savings. The district also received a $419,000 building and renovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education to cover the cost of roofing work at both schools, which has since been completed.
The grant would not affect state reimbursement for the project and can be deducted from the project cost.
Both Central and Perry are more than 30 years old and education department statistics reveal that Frazier has had a steady and significant decline in elementary enrollment for kindergarten through fifth grade. The agency projects that decline to continue.
Such figures are reflected in patterns of birth statistics, grade retention rates and in and out migration.
According to statistics from the department, Frazier’s enrollment stood at 541 students from 2001-2002, and that number is expected to decrease to 491 by 2006-2007.
Superintendent Dr. Frederick Smeigh said Frazier’s decline in kindergarten enrollment supports the state’s projections, which reported the district’s overall attendance in 2002 dropped to 1,171, while elementary attendance dropped from 578 to 543.
Because of the steady decline, Smeigh said, it would be feasible for the district to operate one school instead of two.
For this reason, “I believe the students and taxpayers stand to gain or lose considerably by (the board’s) decision,” said Smeigh.
In conjunction with that recommendation, Smeigh has received criticism from school board President John H. Lowery III and director Kathy Burkholder. Both Lowery and Burkholder are not convinced of Smeigh’s recommendation and are interested in what a feasibility study of the renovation project would reveal.
Smeigh added that he based his recommendation on his 35 years of experience in education and administration, as well as on the state enrollment projections.
However, Lowery questioned how Smeigh, without an updated feasibility study, could reach a conclusion to close one elementary school.
Lowery also spoke on behalf of the building and grounds committee, of which he is a member along with Burkholder, John Sterdis and David Simmons: “At this time we do not want (one) new school because it would be over $2 million more.”
In 1998, Hayes Large Architects of Pittsburgh conducted a feasibility study of the renovation project, at an estimated cost of $7 million. The study, which serves as a decision-making tool for documenting the existing conditions of buildings, is now expired and needs updating.
Representatives from Hayes Large spoke about the study at a public meeting in 2000, indicating then that Frazier had a steady and fairly rapid decline in elementary enrollment. From 1997 to 2000, the study revealed, enrollment for kindergarten through fifth grade fell from 615 students to 542 students, with the estimated enrollment for 2007-2008 at 416 students.
The study also provided four options, one of them to close Perry and add on, or to close Central and add on.
Director Eugene Gearing agrees with Smeigh.
“I would hate to see a school close, but you have to do what’s right for the whole of the school district,” Gearing said.
Gearing, who pushed for the district to conduct air quality tests on both elementary schools in the last year, noted that Perry was constructed on a “swamp” and will only continue to have such problems if it remains.
According to Smeigh, the growth of new homes in the area in the last 10 years has not affected student enrollment.
However, Smeigh’s recommendation to close one elementary school is not his first decision of such kind. In the early 1990s, he suggested the district close Brownfield Elementary School in Lower Tyrone Township, a move he said was “politically unpopular.”
Smeigh, though, said it was one of the best educational and financial decisions the district made, producing $800,000 in savings a year in general fund expenditures.
Whatever decision the board makes, it is required by law to hold a public hearing before constructing a new building or substantial addition.