Laurel cancels school-closing hearing
After voting last month to schedule a public hearing Feb. 20 to consider closing one of the district’s five elementary schools, Laurel Highlands School District officials said Thursday that the hearing has been canceled and that no schools will be closed in the near future. “That was a mistake to schedule that hearing,” said school board President Edward S. George. “No decision has been made. I personally will not take this as a very light decision.”
According to George, all five district elementary schools will be open again next year, but on a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade basis. He added that the district will make no decision until it explores all options and has solicited community input.
“If the community speaks up, that is what is needed,” said Superintendent Ronald Sheba. “This isn’t a popular issue. We have a responsibility to explore the various options available to us.”
Sheba and George, along with other district administrators, spoke to concerned parents at George C. Marshall Elementary School about the proposed closing. According to George, the group already held meetings at the Hutchinson, R.W. Clark and Hatfield elementary schools and at the Laurel Highlands Junior High School in the past week. He said the group also will meet with parents at Kennedy Elementary School on Tuesday.
George said the proposed closing was due in part to the district’s exploration of new options for the kindergarten through fifth-grade students, and he added that the budget concerns also played a role.
“We’ve come through a difficult budget year, and that may factor into the decision to close a school,” he said.
School officials laid out four options that have been proposed by the district’s strategic planning teams.
According to Sheba, the district could keep all five elementary schools open. The second option is to close one elementary school and keep the grade configurations as kindergarten through fifth grade.
Sheba said the third option that officials are exploring involves closing one elementary school and converting two schools to house kindergarten through second grade and two schools to house third through fifth grades.
The final option entails keeping all schools but converting one into an alternative school.
The school officials discussed at length the third option, which they are most interested in: redistricting Laurel Highlands students. According to Sheba, this option, which school officials have seen in action after a field trip to Peters Township, is one of the most intriguing. Marshall principal William Raho agreed.
“I was impressed with what I saw,” he said.
George said he would not speculate as to what school, if any, might be closed.
The district also presented the 40-plus parents in attendance with figures that showed the considerable decline in the number of students throughout the district.
According to district figures, in the 1999-2000 school year, 2,085 students attended the five elementary schools in the district, with the average enrollment at 417 per building. According to district projections, in the 2006-2007 school year, 1,621 students will attend the elementary schools. According to George, if the district operated with four elementary schools, each would average 405 students.