CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Area School District Board of Directors voted, 5-3, to permanently close the Girard-Goshen Elementary School at Monday night’s regular board meeting. The school has been temporarily closed due to structural issues with its roof since October 2010.
Board members David Glass, Mary Anne Jackson, Rick Schickling, Dr. Michael Spencer and Larry Putt all voted in favor of the closure. Board members Phil Carr, Susan Mikesell and Jennifer Wallace opposed. Board member Tim Morgan was absent from the meeting.
Before the board voted on the approximately decade-old school’s fate, Wallace asked if anyone had further reviewed the transportation situation and addressed the time rural students would spend traveling to and from school. Superintendent Dr. Thomas B. Otto indicated the district had neither redone nor added any bus routes.
The district currently has four morning and afternoon routes with two, 43-minutes routes and 52- and 54-minute routes, transporting students into the Clearfield Elementary School. Previous to the school’s temporary closure in October 2010, the Girard-Goshen students were dispersed among three buses with morning and afternoon routes of 42 minutes, 50 minutes and 56 minutes.
In March, the board conducted a 780 public hearing and approximately half-dozen community members, including one with a several-page petition of signatures, showed displeasure in its consideration of permanently closing the school. Before Monday night, the board was prohibited from taking any action until its three-month “cooling off” period had expired.
During the public comment session, resident Chuck Lauver thanked three board members for attending a “Concerned Citizens” meeting. He said, “I’m not sure why the other six board members didn’t show up.” He encouraged the board to revisit its feasibility study proposals and identify areas to cut costs.
“We want to prevent this district from bankruptcy. There isn’t any tax base here,” he said.
From reviewing the district’s architectural reports, he said Girard-Goshen was the district’s best school building and only in need of roof repairs. He asked the board why it would close Girard-Goshen and keep others open that were in drastically poor shape, such as the Clearfield Area Middle School.
Lauver suggested the board repair the Girard-Goshen roof and close Centre Elementary School. However, he suggested the board convert the latter elementary building into the district’s central administrative offices rather than relocating them to the Clearfield Area High School campus.
“I don’t understand the rush to close Girard-Goshen this year,” he said. Resident Stephanie Dale, like Lauver, said Girard-Goshen was in “wonderful condition,” and it didn’t make any sense to close the school when it only needed roof repairs.
“You need to keep our rural children close to home,” said Dale. “If you choose to close Girard-Goshen, you have to fix the busing situation. But please fix the roof.”
At a previous meeting, Otto said that in the district-wide feasibility study, 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.
Also, 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.
