Uniontown meeting should result in decision
The Uniontown Area School Board will hold a special meeting to discuss in detail the high school building project with the intention to not leave the meeting room until a decision is made. Board President Susan Clay announced that a special, non-voting buildings and grounds committee meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, in the high school band room. The public is invited.
At the meeting, the board will take the recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Committee and Foreman Architects Engineers to “see what can be adjusted and taken out and to hopefully come out with a project that is a compromise,” said Clay.
The Citizens Advisory Committee is a group of district residents formed to provide input into the high school project. Former board president Ron Machesky is the group’s chairman.
Clay and board members Tammy Boyle and Dorothy Grahek met with the Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday to discuss the project and address concerns.
Foreman Architects Engineers was hired by the school board to study the original high school renovation/addition plan. The group recently presented suggestions for project cost savings.
“The meeting will be held for the sole purpose of the building project,” said Clay at Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting. “We will go through Foreman’s recommendations to see if cuts can be made to get the project down to $35 million, if not $33 million, and I promised the board that they will not be leaving until we come out with a solution for the building project.”
Board member Harry “Dutch” Kaufman will preside over the meeting as buildings and grounds committee chairman, while Fairchance Construction, construction manager for the project, and Altman & Altman Architects of Uniontown, architectural firm for the project, will be present as well, said Clay.
Plans also are in the works to have a representative of the Foreman group attend the meeting after Boyle requested the action at this week’s meeting.
Also on Tuesday, Clay outlined the rules regarding public comment and grounds for dismissal from the meeting after a disruption at a board meeting held earlier this month led to school security escorting district residents Herbert Margolis and Ralph Mazza from the room.
Before public comment, Clay stressed that the board will not entertain any personal attacks and asked that residents who are speaking to not advance to the table behind which board members, the solicitor and the board secretary are seated. Breaching the guidelines will be grounds for removal, she said.
Responding to a survey the district plans to distribute to parents to garner their opinions on the needs of district schools, Tim Sandstrom said his daughter, a junior at the high school, will graduate with 12 to 18 college credits and near the top of her class.
“She will leave with the leadership and teamwork skills and ability to compete with other students because of the education she received from the teachers in the Uniontown Area School District, not because of the building,” said Sandstrom.
He said changes that need to be made to the school are computer and science lab upgrades and improvements to the water fountains and windows.
“I don’t think the district has the tax resources” for the type of projects the board is considering, he added.
The Rev. Peter Malik, co-chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee, urged the board to “officially end” the high school project because “no progress has been made” and should begin a new capital projects plan.
“The architect has ignored the board’s instructions,” said Malik. “The current plan plus the need to renovate three other buildings is going to bankrupt the district, which would necessitate the state coming in and taking over.”
Malik suggested the district hire an architectural firm specializing in the renovation of school buildings.
“We need to start from scratch and see what this school needs,” he said.
Malik also demanded to know which board member “conceived of and directed” the $43 million Plan A, and now a proposed $50 million project, from behind the scenes. He directed the question to Kaufman, who was board president when Plan A was introduced.
“This entire episode has cost the district a lot of time and money as well as created a great controversy,” said Malik. “One or several board members should not make plans behind the scenes as though they were the entire board.”
Kaufman responded, saying the accusations were “absurd.”
“Harry Kaufman had nothing to do with design changes,” Kaufman said. “What Altman brought to the board resembled three different options for this school, with a decision that (Plan A) was the one we wanted to look at.”
Kaufman said as board president he has discussed things with Altman as well as the business manager, the superintendent and the bond counsel “to be in tune with everything in the school district.
“I’m tired of the accusations,” said Kaufman. “It’s wrong. These are plans drawn up by a professional architect who drew up the plans to do the best he can for the school district.”
Board member Charles Castor also responded to the criticism.
“You’re doing me a lot of justice saying that I have all this power,” Castor said. “I don’t have all this power. I have one vote on this board and it takes a combined vote of five people to do anything.”
Comments were received from several other district residents.
Dale Rexrode recommended that the board fire Altman & Altman as architect for the project, alleging the district has no contract with the firm for additional renovation plans presented to the board at past meetings.
Angela Yankulic asked Castor to resign. His reappointment to the board is at the center of a lawsuit recently filed by district residents.
“I think you appointed him in haste without allowing time to review applicants for the position,” she said to the board. “If (the residents) wanted Castor in that position, we would have voted him there. Personally, I don’t think I could sit in that position knowing the taxpayers didn’t put me there.”
Jerrie Mazza criticized what she perceived as the board’s unwillingness to answer the public’s questions, noting they broke Robert’s Rules of Order when they added Castor’s reappointment to the agenda at the Jan. 4 board meeting without allowing the public to comment on it.
Responding to the criticism, Boyle said, “We do not do backroom deals and we tried to address your questions.”
All board members were present at Tuesday’s meeting.