LH board mulls over closing elementary school
The Laurel Highlands School Board at a Tuesday work session mulled over money matters, including whether it may be cost effective to close one of five elementary schools. Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba said the issue came up at a recent strategic plan meeting, and he wanted to raise it with the school board. The district would need to conduct a public hearing in February to receive comments if the board wants to include the issue in budget talks for the next fiscal year, Sheba said.
“This is all preliminary,” he said. “All this is in general discussion, and no decisions, obviously, have been made. You (school board members) make the final decisions. We’re just trying to gather information.”
Administrator Dr. Gary Brain said the idea is coming from the strategic planning process, and the hearing would give the school board information for any or even no decisions.
Sheba said the school board can keep all schools open, but he offered a few options if one was closed.
No school was named, but Sheba said one option could be to take the students from the closed school and place them in the remaining schools, and another option could be to redistrict all the remaining elementary schools. He listed a third option as designating two of the four elementary schools for kindergarten through second grade and the other two for third through fifth grades, keeping in mind the sixth grades will move next school year to the junior high, which is being converted to a middle school.
He said the immediate cost saving is in building operations. He said the district would lay off no employees, since the number of overall students would not change. Laurel Highlands could realize other cost savings in services and eventually because the fifth building would not have to be renovated, Sheba added.
Board members asked the administrators to come up with actual figures on what could be the cost savings of closing a school.
Board President Edward S. George said closing a school is a drastic step, and the board needs parental and public input.
Among other matters the board discussed at the work session in advance of tonight’s regular business meeting, representatives of the food service management company Nutrition Inc. offered the district its services.
The school board has talked for several years about losing money within the cafeterias, which the district operates; however, the district had put out no requests for bids on managing the cafeteria, a process required by the state.
George said Nutrition Inc. approached him privately, and he wanted to involve all of the board in conversations.
With a number of cafeteria workers in the audience, the Nutrition Inc. representatives said they work on a fee, much like an architect or similar service, but can save the district money and possibly operate at a profit. They assured the employees that they do not impose layoffs and keep the same staff as employees of the district.
The company is based in West Newton and manages 83 school districts in the state.
Service employees’ union leader Connie Belle said the Laurel Highlands cafeteria workers already do much of what Nutrition Inc. listed as its services. She said the cafeteria workers are a team and need to continue working together.
Director Tom Vernon said any decision would be made jointly with the food service director and union.
Hutchinson Elementary School principal Carmen Galderisi asked the board to consider hiring two classroom aides for his kindergarten and third-grade classes, saying he is concerned about student achievement with large class sizes.
He quoted two kindergarten classes of 26 and 27 students and two third-grade classes of 27 students each, noting the third-graders this school year will take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment standardized tests in math and reading for the first time.
He talked in general about learning and behavioral issues in the classes that are affecting achievement and said the teachers need the extra help of the aides.
Galderisi estimated the cost at $3,500 each for a total of $7,000 for the second semester of this school year.
During preparation of the 2002-2003 budget, the school board cut 12 classroom aides in an effort to save money.
Sheba said the district simply does not have the money to hire back the classroom aides at this time. He and others also noted Hutchinson recently received a classroom aide through a grant the district received and is using just at Hutchinson.
Special education director Beverly Bieniek noted afterward that this school year, the district has hired aides as needed for special education but has not restored the regular classroom aides.
Among further matters, Steve Nesser showed the board members architect drawings for a new field house at the high school.
Nesser and others in the community are working as a booster group with plans to raise money apart from the district for construction of the building, which he estimated to cost about $300,000.
The drawings included home and visiting team locker rooms, restrooms, coaches’ offices and a multi-purpose room.
Nesser said the building is meant to be used by all the district’s teams and eventually would be turned over to the district.