Daniel Boone School Board members have postponed a vote to implement phase 2 of the elementary school reconfiguration, but the board has decided to hold a hearing April 6 on closing a Birdsboro school.
Board members voted 8-1 on Feb. 27 to approve the resolution authorizing advertisement and scheduling of a hearing to permanently close the Birdsboro Elementary Center, beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
The closure is due to declining student enrollment.
Member Carol Beitz voted against the resolution.
“We should evaluate, and not vote until we have determined exactly what building to close,” said Beitz, adding, “We should look at it holistically as a district. [Student] enrollment is now lower than prior to last April.”
She said the board should objectively consider the benefits of closing Monocacy Elementary Center in 2018-19, as much as it has considered the benefits of closing Birdsboro Elementary Center.
Beitz said that examination should begin with a real estate appraisal of Monocacy Elementary Center to determine its market value.
“It would get a lot of money,” said Beitz of Monocacy Elementary Center, which was built in 2007, compared to Birdsboro Elementary Center, built in 1989.
“Maybe it is Monocacy Elementary Center that should be closed,” said Beitz, adding, “Once we start down that path …”
She advised that the board “push the pause button” on the current schedule to close Birdsboro Elementary Center.
James R. Thompson, of Thompson Associates Architects & Planners, Harrisburg, estimated in his, “Dialogue 2,” last April, that Birdsboro Elementary Center’s capital needs were estimated at $400,000 over the next two to five yeas.
An additional $3.2 million of repairs would be needed in six to 10 years.
Monocacy Elementary Center, built in 2007, is in excellent condition and will require $100,000 of work in two to five years.
Another $100,000 would be needed in six to 10 years to restore and clean the masonry and repair the walkways and paving.
“The hearing is to discuss closing the building, and then another 90 days later, after the public weighs in, the board votes [on the motion to close Birdsboro Elementary Center],” said member Richard Martino.
The board’s March 13 Committee of the Whole meeting will be held at the Amity Elementary Center, 200 Boone Drive, Douglassville, at 7:30 p.m., following the board’s tour of the building.
In other business, board members have decided to postpone purchasing Apple iPads for students until the 2018-19 school year.
The board is considering purchasing 70 Apple iPads now for teachers, at an estimated cost of $28,280, including training and preliminary materials.
Superintendent James P. Harris proposed a two-year roll-out, which provides teachers and staff one full year of training and use before students receive them the following year.
“It gives the teachers a year of development, they learn how to grade tests, work on practice speed . . . a year to learn it, play with it,” said Harris.
Director of Technology Scott Matz recommended the district purchase Apple iPads instead of Google Chromebooks.
Although similar costs, Matz said the district’s network better supports Apple and the iPads.
The total cost for 1,275 units, plus 70 for the teachers, and 40 extra units, is estimated at $515,000 for a four-year lease, or $133,875 per year.
Richard Hurley, assistant to the superintendent, presented the One to One Initiative to the board on Jan. 23.
It was presented as an alternative to spending $100,000 from the 2017-18 budget for new textbooks.
“This is an opportune time [for this plan],” said Hurley.
“We need to update books, computers (which are six to eight years old), and financially it makes sense for us now.”
“Textbooks are immediately dated, but websites are always current,” said Hurley, adding, “We want kids to be life-long learners, and this can promote that while replacing textbooks and [the school’s computer] technology.”
The board’s Recording Secretary Kathleen Haines said Jan. 23 that preliminary cost estimates are $404 for an iPad with a case.
