AMITY – Citing insufficient data and premature public presentations, the Daniel Boone Area School Board voted unanimously Monday night to not schedule a hearing to close the Monocacy Elementary Center for the 2015-16 school year.
School Board President Richard Martino said district administration needs to determine actual available capacity at each school building before the board votes to close a school.
He said a future building closure is not off the table.
“The board will discuss a time line and look at closing a building as enrollment continues to decline. At the next finance committee meeting, begin looking at classes, transportation, and threshold of students.”
Finance Committee Chairman Andrew Basile said building capacity has been determined by the architect.
“We need to know that we’re not shoving 30 first graders into a classroom just because the fire marshal says we can, but that we’re following district policy,” said facilities committee member Michael D. Wolfe.
Monthly and year-to-date enrollment data will be posted on the district’s website in the public documents section.
Discussion of a building closure began at the board’s Feb. 23 voting meeting.
Basile said a total of $1.5 million would have been saved if the board had closed Amity Primary Center “right away.”
“When Amity Primary Center was closed to do renovations in 2009, we put students in other buildings. The discussion was whether to reopen the building. We voted to move in. If we were to close it after spending $9 million — we sat in it for three years. We saved $666,000 when it was closed in 2013.”
He said Monocacy Elementary Center can accommodate 450 elementary students but has 409 kindergarten through second graders.
Birdsboro Elementary Center can accommodate 650 but has 380 students.
Basile said Feb. 23 that the district’s empty classrooms and continually decreasing enrollment require the board to consider the need to close a building, effective this fall.
Despite emotional pleas from school district residents about the merits of full day kindergarten, the board didn’t vote to restore the full-day program.
Beverly Albright, Douglassville, said the discussion of a building closure on Feb. 23 “was thrown out as a smoke screen to full day kindergarten.”
Albright encouraged the board to vote for full day kindergarten.
“We need something positive in the newspaper – to bring people here,” said Albright.
Martino said the board has received public “backlash” from the Feb. 23 full-day kindergarten presentation by Superintendent Marybeth Torchia at the curriculum and instruction committee meeting.
“Board members didn’t know about Mrs. Torchia’s presentation,” said Martino. “We don’t want to rush into that – or the building closure. Three weeks isn’t sufficient time” to make a decision and implement the changes.
He said Mrs. Torchia’s statement that full day kindergarten wouldn’t cost the district anything was wrong; any savings the district realizes from teacher furloughs and retirements should be applied to the district’s $2 million retirement cost.
“The state doesn’t mandate either full day or half day kindergarten,” said Martino.
“One-and-a-half years ago, we had a $3.5 million deficit, and were considering eliminating sports, music, kindergarten, some educational programs, and increasing taxes to the index.”
“The board has managed to keep all of that,” said Martino, adding that the district’s debt is currently $88 million with an anticipated $120 million in interest payments.
He said full-day kindergarten should have been presented months ago, not three weeks before kindergarten registration.
“We all think full-day kindergarten is a good thing,” said board member Tamara D. Twardowski, adding, “but we’re trying to balance the needs of all students. No one is sitting here saying it is bad. If we can bring back full-day and keep it without losing music, sports, or educational programs, that is great.”
