Jersey Shore Area School Board hears pleas not to close elementary school
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JERSEY SHORE-If the comments the Jersey Shore Area School Board received at the public hearing on whether to close Salladasburg Elementary School are an indicator, the majority of the 50 or so people in attendance Monday night, oppose such an action.
The hearing will be followed by a 90-day cooling off period, according to Christopher Kenyon, board solicitor, who moderated the hearing.
The proposal which prompted the hearing is that Jersey Shore Elementary would house all current students plus Salladasburg students in grades K-5. Avis would have all current students in grades K-5 and Salladasburg would close at the end of the 2024-25 school year
District residents whose children attend Salladasburg seemed blindsided by the proposal since last year the previous school board had voted to keep the school open and chose instead to reconfigure some of the classes to equalize class size amongst the three elementary schools.
Budgetary concerns were high on the list of reasons why the school should be closed, but
Several residents chastised the board for only thinking of maximizing building efficiencies and not the students in those buildings. .
"I would implore the board to remember the reason that the small elementary schools are there. They're there to reduce commute times for elementary age students, to provide a much more personal and small class size for a better one on one interaction with the students and teachers, and we lose that as we focus on solely the efficiency of how our buildings are run and how students are put in, like Tetris pieces, I guess, into the school," said Ben Gamble, who has two children in district schools.
""The value of education can't be put down to a dollar figure. It shouldn't be based on a line item in a budget," Gamble said.
In his opening statement, Superintendent Brian Ulmer provided an overview of district facilities needs as compiled by Hunt Engineering in a 2020 feasibility study and the impact on the district's budget. He cautioned that the figures would currently be higher.
A breakdown of the heating and air conditioning (HVAC) needs, which the Capital Projects Committee had cited as priorities, are: Administration Building,$175,000; Avis Elementary, $1,256,000; Jersey Shore Elementary, $95,000; High School, $1,294,000; Middle School, $834,000; and Salladasburg Elementary, $1,593,000.
The costs for Salladasburg does not include all needed repairs at the school, according to a more recent June 2022 Capital Projects report.
Ulmer noted that the district would need to borrow $10 million which would result in an increase of $500,000 to the general fund budget debt service annually through 2030. The current debt will be eliminated in 2030.
District resident Raye Bierly questioned the need to borrow the $.5 million arguing that it's already in the budgetary reserve.
"The reality is we do have that money, it's in our budget right now. You can easily find $500,000 because all you have to do is go to your budgetary reserve, that little slush fund that we just throw in there. It's $1,420,000," she said.
"How much money do you need to have laying around and to justify closing a school when the money's already there? That's not transparency - that's a shell game - and it's not fair to the taxpayers and students in this district," Bierly said.
In his presentation, Ulmer also listed what would happen if the district continued as it is.
The cost for projects that need to be addressed in the next five years at the Middle School, Avis Elementary and Salladasburg would be $42 million at a minimum, Ulmer said. That figure does not include the High School and Jersey Shore Elementary School.
"We can do nothing and maintain the buildings, finding a way to come up with that $42 million. We cannot borrow that $42 million-that's another important piece of information. That is beyond our debt threshold," Ulmer said.
"The board has heard that from financial management and they've heard it from me. We would need a larger annual payment in order to pull that off," he said.
If no changes are made, the district also has the option of exhausting current fund balance and raising taxes to accomplish the needed repairs. Repairs would be done over a longer period of time which could result in emergency repairs occuring.
Closing Salladasburg would result in a savings in staffing costs. Ulmer listed the following: five regular ed teachers, $419,71;, three paraprofessionals (library, learning support and reading); $144,082; one night shift custodian, $61,592; one head custodian, $69,838; 10-month secretary; $65,185.
This scenario would result in an annual operational savings of $100.000 and a total annual budget savings of $860,397.
He emphasized that the staff reductions would be taken through attrition, not furloughs.
The people who had come out to vent their feelings on the possible closure seemed more interested in how it would affect the students rather than the impact on the budget.
Their overwhelming cry was don't close our school.
"I live on Social Security and a small retirement and I expect an occasional tax increase. Everything else goes up and we've only had one increase in the last five years," said Genevieve Rearick.
"I can't see where closing the school is going to be good for the students. If taxes have to go up somewhat, we have to expect that," she said.
Rearick, like many of those who commented, mentioned the smaller class sizes with the students being distributed over three schools rather than two if Salladasburg were to close, and the sense of community that the students have in the smaller school.
"Small community schools are better off. The children know each other. It's just better for the students and teachers to have smaller classes," Rearick said.
One resident noted that the district is one of the few that still operates smaller schools. Many districts have closed buildings and consolidated students into larger buildings resulting in larger class sizes.
The parents who commented focused on the disruptions closing Salladasburg would cause for their children some who had already been shifted to that school during the reconfiguration last year.
"I feel my children were forcibly moved last year to Salladasburg, forced to adapt again, forced to make new friends, adapt to new schools, which they did," said Brandi Carothers.
"Now they're being told that they're going to have to do this again. You're not considering any of the endangerments you're putting on these children. The disruptions that you're doing to their learning, to their emotional well being," Carothers said.
Board member Kayla Calhoun spoke from the podium not in her official capacity, but as the mother of school age children and a member of the public.
Calhoun criticized the way the board is managing the situation citing "negativity on both sides."
"With the negativity comes hostility and defensiveness, feelings of being targeted and fear to speak freely and what this is doing to our children," Calhoun said.
"We are adults. We are a community. We are here to provide a supportive environment where all members learn, grow and succeed to positively impact the world around them," she said.
She suggested that during the cooling off period, there needs to be more discussion and more information provided.
Of the 20-plus people who commented at the end of the hearing, only a few spoke in favor of listening to the studies which favor closure.
"So we just ignore the advice of these professionals and say they don't know what they're talking about," asked Wayne Kinley, district resident and former board member.
John Shireman also questioned the safety of the students at the two outlying schools in terms of response times of first responders.
"What's the response time if an emergency happens at Avis or at Salladasburg. How long does it take the police to get there," he asked.
"When you bring these students in here, there can be things configured to make it safe," he added.
All the talk of budgetary concerns, such as how much funding the district will receive from the state and what repairs to district buildings can wait, seemed less important than the heartfelt comment from a young student from Salladasburg who said, "Please don't shut down the school. I love going there."