CLEARFIELD – Approximately half-dozen community members, including one with a several-page petition of signatures, showed displeasure in the Clearfield Area School District’s consideration of permanently closing the Girard-Goshen Elementary School at its 780 public hearing Wednesday night at the Clearfield Middle School auditorium.
In January, Superintendent Dr. Thomas B. Otto recommended the district consolidate the Centre, Bradford and Girard-Goshen elementary schools and the Clearfield Middle School, moving kindergarten through grades six into an expanded and renovated Clearfield Elementary School. If approved, this would cost the district $8.9 million.
Before the closure of any school building, the district must advertise its consideration of the same for 15 days prior to the Act 780 public hearing. By law, Act 780 is a public hearing, required by school districts before consolidation can be considered. In addition, it must be held no less than three months before a decision can be made.
Girard-Goshen has been temporarily closed since October 2010 because of structural and safety concerns related to the building’s roof. At that time, approximately 70 students as well as faculty were relocated into the CES, where they’re currently resuming their education.
In his presentation prior to public comment, Otto said enrollment and class configuration were among the concerns driving his recommendation for the district to close Girard-Goshen. In 2006-07, he said the school had its highest ever enrollment with 75 students and it’s dropped to the current 66 students who are attending CES in 2011-12.
In addition, he said board members and parents shared concerns about classroom configurations, and he felt the district could be accommodating in this regard. He said that at least for the first year, the incoming Girard-Goshen students wouldn’t be completely dispersed in other classrooms.
In the district-wide feasibility study, he said the six options estimated it would cost 0.57 million to renovate Girard-Goshen. He said an “extensive study” showed it would cost an additional $1.5 million to repair the building’s roof, bringing renovation costs to $2.07 million.
Otto said the district hasn’t received any assistance from the contractors involved in the construction of Girard-Goshen. He said one has come forward and offered to donate shingles, but other than that, the district has been “on its own” to resolve this building matter.
Since October 2010, the district has been busing Girard-Goshen students into the CES. Previously, these students were dispersed among three buses with morning and afternoon routes of 42 minutes, 50 minutes and 56 minutes. Currently, the district has four morning and afternoon routes with two, 43-minutes routes and 52- and 54-minute routes, transporting them into the CES, Otto said.
He said the district paid out $74,251 annually in utilities at Girard-Goshen, which included electricity, water, sewer, propane, oil, garbage and maintenance. He said the school’s budget – personnel, maintenance and utilities – totaled $797,618, or $12,085 per student. However, he pointed out that CES had the lowest per student cost with $4,718 and 487 students.
According to Otto, his first concern was the equity in class size. He wanted the students in classes of similar sizes throughout grade levels and the district. For example, he said the class sizes of 25 students are beyond what he’d like them to be in Kindergarten at CES.
Currently, he said Girard-Goshen has 16 students in kindergarten and first grade classes; 17 students in second grade classes; 13 students in third grade classes and 14 students in fourth grade classes. At CES, there are 25 students in both kindergarten and second grade classes, 24 students in both first and fourth grade classes and 23 students in third grade classes.
In discussing the financial aspect, Business Administrator Sam Maney said the district has been losing revenue in recent years. Using 2008-09 as the base year, he said the district received $32.7 million then, as compared to $32.2 million in 2011-12. He said the district is anticipating that revenues will decline by $1.3 million to $30.8 million this upcoming year.
Maney said the district’s revenues totaled $33.04 million for 2009-10 and $34.17 million for 2010-11. He noted the district received American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or stimulus, funding those years. For 2011-12, he said the budget figures were a projection based on actual revenue for eight months and estimated revenue for the remaining four months. He said the 2012-13 revenue numbers represented preliminary budget amounts.
In closing, Otto recommended the closing of Girard-Goshen, beginning with the 2012-13 school year. After school board members declined to provide individual opinions, Solicitor Aimee Willett opened the floor for public comment to the three individuals who had signed up to speak prior to the hearing.
Parent Stephanie Dale presented the district with a several-page petition of signatures of taxpayers, parents and community members who opposed the closing of the Girard-Goshen, Bradford Township and Centre elementary schools. She asked the school board to “put a number on it” for her to collect in order to prevent the closings.
Willett said she didn’t believe the board would be comfortable in doing that. Dale said the school closings were a concern, and it wasn’t evident in the small turnout. She said many more are upset but return home from work to families, household chores and children with homework.
“They’re not coming to a meeting,” Dale said. Willett told her they were willing to enter her petition into the record, adding the school closing would remain open for discussion for a three-month “cooling off’ period, before the board could make any decision on the matter.
Including Dale, others present were concerned with transportation. Shawny Bennett, transportation coordinator, told Dale that the district has added a fourth route for Girard-Goshen students, since they’re being bused into Clearfield. When asked by Dale, Bennett said the CES students who reside in Clearfield spend approximately 32 minutes on the bus.
“So, Girard-Goshen students are already at a disadvantage,” Dale said, adding these students must get up earlier, are on the buses longer and getting home later than their classmates at the CES.
Parent Carrie Benton said her child’s bus only has eight children at times, and on some occasions, it’s had only four children. She asked the district if it’s considered either adding these to another route, or switching to vans. Bennett explained that because she sees four or eight students on the bus, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the only students on that route.
Bennett said this route has approximately 28 students assigned to it. However, some students who could ride the bus aren’t riding, and unless a parent calls with notification, they still have to make each stop along the route.
Community member Diane Hugney expressed concerns regarding the winter roadway conditions near the Shawville Power Plant. She feared one of the buses could become involved in a serious accident there while busing students further from home into Clearfield. Bennett said in the wintertime, she often gets up as early as 3:15 a.m. and gets in touch with PennDOT and makes the necessary contacts, as it relates to roadway conditions.
Parent Roger Owens questioned the board about the roof, asking why it hadn’t sued the contractors involved. “You have a contractor willing to donate a couple shingles. Most would be suing these people. It sounds to me that you all just want to close the school,” he said.
Willett reminded Owens that the district is still pursing legal recourse, as it related to the Girard-Goshen roof. She said they’d hired special counsel Goehring, Rutter & Boehm to handle the litigation. In addition, she said the district has hired consultants to diagnose the roof’s conditions as well as to place dollar amounts on its repairs.
“Why are he (Otto) and she (Willett) the only ones speaking?” Owens asked. “Why isn’t the board talking?” Otto said the board was present to listen and hear the public’s comments of approval and or disapproval. At that point, Owens asked why the district had money for expansion projects but not to fix a roof.
Otto explained that the district needed to “fix everything.” He said virtually all of the district’s buildings need renovations, including the athletic fields. Owens and Dale told Otto that athletics were not important, and the education and students needed to come first, leaving athletics last on the list.
Dale asked the board members if any had traveled the back-roads and visited the Girard-Goshen community. Bennett said she had, but Dale asked for someone from the board to comment. At that point, board member Jennifer Wallace said she had, asking if their biggest concern was the transportation. She said she shared in their concern.
“That’s my biggest concern and I expressed that at one of our last meetings. I’m a parent, too,” Wallace said. Dale said she didn’t want her “babies” on the road the additional 30 minutes for them to be bused to the CES.
Glass encouraged community members to attend the regular board meetings over the next three months so that they can make the best decision possible. He said they’ve been working through the building discussion for the past two years, and they want the community engaged in their decision-making process.
“If it’s important to you and if you want to be heard, you’ll come to us,” Glass said. Again in closing, he told Dale he wasn’t prepared to give her a fixed number of signatures to collect for petition purposes. He said it is “easy” for someone to put their name down on a petition, but they wanted to hear “specific concerns” from these people.
Benton asked why the public hearing wasn’t held at Girard-Goshen. Glass said the district felt the middle school auditorium was the best location in case of a large turnout. Benton believed Girard-Goshen could have handled several hundred people, and if not, it could have been conducted outside.
“People aren’t going to drive to Clearfield. Gas is $3.95 per gallon,” Benton said.
The board’s next regular meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday at the Clearfield Middle School library.