Connellsville Area school directors review options from feasibility study
CONNELLSVILLE — Connellsville Area School Directors reviewed for the first time on Wednesday the district’s newest feasibility study conducted by Eckles Construction Services of New Castle.
According to John Pappas, vice president of Eckles, a feasibility study is conducted every two years at the requirement of the state Department of Education and is necessary before a board decides to embark on any renovation work.
The study was also essential, Pappas said, because of all of the changes the district has undergone over the last few years, including the high school renovation, the closing of Zachariah Connell Elementary and the grade level regroupings.
Included in the newest study is how all of the district’s buildings fall on the federal government’s Energy Star benchmark. For example, West Crawford Elementary has a rating of 85, while other schools in the district have a much lower rating, such as Dunbar Borough Elementary, with a rating of eight, Pappas said.
“The higher the rating, the better,” he said. “The rating identifies buildings that aren’t energy efficient.”
Mark Scheller, project architect for Eckles, said the target number is 75. He said most of the buildings, however, are below that target.
“You’re really spending a lot of money to operate (Dunbar Borough) and not getting much out of it,” he said.
Pappas noted that four elementary schools have not been renovated in over 20 years.
Scheller also reported that some of the buildings are underutilized, and others are over-capacity.
At 59 percent capacity, West Crawford Elementary is one that is underutilized.
“There are classrooms that are open that could accommodate other students,” Scheller said.
Scheller and Pappas presented the board with several options for consideration.
The first option would be that all district buildings remain the same without any significant improvements, but other options were more extensive.
In one option, South Side Elementary would be closed, and the students would be relocated to Connellsville Township after a renovation. That option could cost the district upwards of $17 million.
In another option, Dunbar Borough would be closed, and the students relocated to West Crawford Elementary. That option could cost the district between $1.5 million and $1.8 million.
“There are other options that could be out there,” Pappas said. “The study is still preliminary. There’s still work we need to do.”
In total, 10 options were presented to the board.
Also Wednesday, school directors approved several changes to the curriculum for the 2014-15 school year.
Junior and senior high school students will now have a plethora of new courses to choose from next year.
The History of Rock and Roll, a course that is composed of eight chronologically arranged units of study that examine the major developments in early rock and roll in an historical context, is just one of the new courses to be offered next school year for high school students.
According to Dr. Tammy Stern, curriculum director, the district will not have to hire new staff to offer the new courses.
The board added the following courses to the high school curriculum: honors trigonometry/pre-calculus, Honors English 9, Honors English 10 and Honors English 11.
In addition to the History of Rock and Roll course, Musical Theatre Arts Curtain Call, Piano III, a guitar class and instrumental labs will be added to the senior high music curriculum. The musical theatre curtain call course will be offered to students who have taken a Musical Theatre Arts course and wish to have the opportunity to prepare a public performance.
As for junior high students, they will now have the opportunity to take a study skills course next year, as well as a consumer education course. School directors also added Algebra I Part A to the eighth grade curriculum.
According to Stern, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) prep course will now be offered to high school students, instead of to eighth-grade students.
“We’re sending one of the junior high math teachers to the senior high to teach that course,” Stern said.
Also Wednesday, the school directors approved Camp Tech for students in grades nine through 12. Stern said the students will take a day from regular school activities to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workshops.
The program costs about $35,000 and will be paid for by the Falcon Foundation.
In other business, the board:
n Approved to allow ninth-grade students to attend the Connellsville Area Career and Technical Center.
n Approved to purchase a 2014 cargo van for $23,600 to be paid by the capital reserve fund.
n Approved a change order for the high school renovation project at a cost of $15,858.
n Approved to purchase a 2011 Ford E250 cargo van from Davies Ford, Inc. for $19,000. Funding for the van comes from donations from the Eberly Foundation and Ford.