Connellsville Area School Board begins consolidation discussions
CONNELLSVILLE — Connellsville Area School Directors are moving forward with discussions surrounding the possibility of school closures.
Directors on Tuesday gave approval to establish a feasibility committee, with School Director Fran Mongell serving as committee chairman, to direct the district administration to begin exploring options on the table for school consolidation. The board also authorized to conduct a strategic planning meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016.
Mongell will work with the administration over the next month on pulling the facts together regarding the consolidation options.
School Director Bryan Kisiel said the most recent feasibility study, conducted by Eckles Construction Services of New Castle in 2014, will serve as a basis for any possible decisions; however, school directors will also take into consideration studies that were completed several years ago.
In February 2014, Eckles presented the board with several options for consideration.
In one option, all district buildings remain the same without any significant improvements. Other options, however, were more extensive.
In another 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. Another scenario called for the closing of Dunbar Borough Elementary, with students being relocated to West Crawford Elementary. That option could cost the district between $1.5 million and $1.8 million.
Michael Omatick, director of Buildings and Grounds for the district, said while the 2014 study is the most recent, there have been many studies over the years.
Omatick said other studies were completed in 1994, 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2009. Omatick also noted there was an addendum to the 2009 study completed in 2010.
“We’ll be taking into consideration the other feasibility studies, taking a look at those, at least from a historical perspective,” Kisiel said. “The Eckles study is the prevailing study so that’s the one we’ll be working with.”
The most current study prepared by Eckles Construction Services, will expire in June 2016.
Kisiel said the board will likely establish public hearing dates at the board’s regular meeting in January. A public hearing must be held three months prior to a school closure according a public school code.
Acting Superintendent Phil Martell said there are many facts to consider when talking about school consolidation. He said the board will determine enrollment projects and their impact on surplus space; completing an inventory of the capacity and conditions of existing facilities; the age, technological capacity and educational innovation of each building; transportation costs; and operating costs, including energy, maintenance, food service and staffing.
Martell presented the board with a potential timeline over the next six months, with June 2016 signaling a vote by the board to possibly reconfigure district buildings.
“If the district is to close a school, it must be based upon hard, empirical evidence that leads to a broadly supported, incontrovertible conclusion,” Martell said. “The district cannot afford to keep particular schools open without cuts elsewhere.”
Also Tuesday, the board:
n Approved Keith Smith, technology education instructor at the Connersville Area High School, to attend Project Lead the Way Civil Engineering and Architecture training at the University of South Carolina from Jan. 1-10, 2016, at an approximate cost of $5,000.
n Approved a five-year subscription for Go Math! by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for grades kindergarten through sixth, starting with the 2016-17 school year, at a proposed, one-time cost of $192,991. Wandel said it is an essential part of the curriculum in regard to the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards.