Two topics that recently attracted much attention over the last few weeks were addressed by the Centennial School Board Monday night.
A high turnout of parents watched as the school directors unanimously approved both the sale agreement of the Leary, Longstreth and Stackpole properties to County Builders and the tabling of the altered elementary bell schedule while administration re-analyzed the situation.
The sale of the three buildings now moves into a 60-day due diligence phase, followed by a 30-day waiting period until the closing date. County Builders is purchasing the properties for a grand total of $1.33 million ($480,000 for Stackpole, $450,000 for Leary and Longstreth).
Centennial Superintendent Dr. Jenny Cressman addressed many of the concerns voiced by district residents through e-mails and on Patch about the sale price. She echoed points she originally made in a blog post on the Centennial website, including:
- The money reflects the state of the current reale state market.
- To keep the properties under the district's care while waiting for a better offer would require the district to pay for their upkeep, including securing the sites from vandals and loiterers, mowing the lawns, regular inspections for water damage, etc., at an estimated cost of $50,000 per building.
- The properties are being sold "as is, where is," meaning the County Builders will be responsible for the demolition of the buildings, including asbestos abatement.
- Other bid offers that were higher had too many contingencies that risked the possibility of the potential buyer backing out and placing the district back at square one with empty buildings to manage.
- Pending legislation that would make it easier for a charter school to take over the buildings with little or no financial restitution to the district.
"This has been discussed extensively at our committee meetings," said Dr. Cressman. "This is not a decision made lightly. We have received 30 to 40 e-mails on this, and we do hear you."
The sale of the buildings is a part of the overall school consolidation plan. Students from Leary have been moved to Willow Dale, Stackpole students will join Davis students at the new Region 1 school and Longstreth students will move to McDonald Elementary in September. The Longstreth and McDonald students will then move to the new Region 2 school in March 2013.
The closing of the neighborhood schools means that there will be fewer students walking to school, requiring a new busing plan by the transportation department.
Director Wayne Robinson presented a to the elementary committee that he said would ensure that students are picked up in a timely manner. As configured, the schedule would look like the following:
- will begin classes at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m.
- Davis Elementary and will begin at 9:00 a.m. and dismiss at 3:45 p.m.
The later end times elicited a strong reaction from parents who feared that their children would have less time for extra-curricular activities.
"I have received an unbelievable amont of feedback, mostly from the parents at Willow Dale," said school board member Jane Schrader Lynch, who also chairs the education committee. "They do not want this. It changes their whole life."
School Director Michael Hartline moved to table the issue and allow administration an opportunity to re-analyze the schedule, a motion that was unanimously approved. The operations committee will take a look at any new alterations at its May 7 meeting.
It was made clear that in order for all of the schools to dismiss at the same time, the district would need to purchase 10 to 12 additional buses, costing approximately $1.2 million, plus the cost of hiring more drivers. If that is the route the district chooses, the finance committee will also need to review the matter at its May 21 meeting.
Robinson also mentioned that altering the middle school and high school schedules will also have to be considered in order to keep the elementary dismissal times earlier.
The entire Administration should be removed. The Bus Director is unable to move fewer students to schools without changing the schedule for some and not others. In years past, the district has had many more students and was able to move the children smoothly and efficiently. Another example of someone hired to do a job that they are unable to do properly. The spending is out of control, there are no checks and balances within the District. Sale of properties at a discounted price seems suspicious, especially without appraisals. The children of the District lose their neighborhood schools and sense of community along with the adults who moved into the neighborhoods to be close to the schools. Thank you to all the so-called professionals who do not have a clue on how to run a district or tend to the needs of the children. Shame on all of you. Thank you Ms. Lynch and Ms. Huf for listening if a bit late, you both at least listened and showed concern. Perhaps you can convince the other CSB members to do the same. I do not give any hope to the Administration listening to anything other than the voices in their heads.
Maybe that should have been part of their planning when they FORCED these schools on the communities, taking away our nice, small neighborhood schools and putting our kids through all this unnecessary upheaval! And now, because of their poor planning and complete lack of regard for the students and the parents, they want our kids to walk home in the dark, lose precious family time, disrupt everyone's schedules and just negatively impact whole communities and for what?? Not for the kids. So they can save some money that they squander on other things. I just cant voice my disgust strongly enough.
Dr. Cressman/Mr. Robinson/School Board: you are all in charge in charge of millions of dollars that belongs to this community, If you can't do your jobs effectively and efficiently, AND, with a degree of honestly and common sense; Please resign. At this point in time Harrisburg and charter schools are not ruining public education, representative like you are.
1. Start from scratch and recreate all your routes to make only Right turns whenever possible. This saves time, money and gas. Think about it. 2. Consolidate any bus stops that are relatively close 3. No waiting for anyone. If there not waiting for the bus they missed it. 4. Every bus 100% full. 5. Stagger start times of drivers. 6. Hire part-time drivers to fill the missing pieces. 7. Always constantly look to improve effectiveness of the routes and schedules.
Dr. Cressman-cresje@centennialsd.org Dr. Pollock-pollan@centennialsd.org Mrs. Betty Huf-hufbet@centennialsd.org Mrs. Kati Driban-dribka@centennialsd.ord Mr. Steven Adams-adamst@centennialsd.org Mr Michael Hartline-hartmi@centennialsd.org Mr Charles Kleinschmidt-kleich@centennialsd.org Mrs. Jane Lynch-lyncja@centennialsd.org Mr. David Shaftner-shafda@centennialsd.org Mr Mark Miller-millmb@centennialsd.org
We live across the street from Longstreth School and there is a sidewalk that was built around 1968 and it runs between our homes, it is short cut for the children to go to school, from Hilltop Road to Roberts Road. This sidewalk and property belongs to the school district. Who is now going to maintain it?
Would have been nice to see this much interest last year when Dr. Pollack and the other four board members including Lynch and Huff who supported the new teachers contract which put us in further debt. One year later they tell us their is no money to pay for it. And now have to layoff teachers .Totally irresponsible move in this ecomonic climate. The sale of three properties for such a low amount is almost laughable. This is prime real estate they just gave away. Its time to see if there is any connection to Dr. Pollack or any other board members with County Builders. The whole things smells funny. I am sure County Builders are going to try and build as many townhomes they can and increase the strain even more on our schools with increased population . Dr. Pollack answer will just be to build another school to cover the increase. This school board has had no financial responsiblity to this disctrict. In the past few years they have put us in a horrible financial position for the furture.