The end of the 2017-18 school year brought mixed emotions in the Birdsboro area.
While fifth-grade students bid farewell to their teachers for the start of their summer school break, teachers and Daniel Boone Area School District administration mourned the permanent closure of the Birdsboro Elementary Center.
The last student day was June 12.
Birdsboro Elementary Center’s closure was initiated more than two years ago by the district’s “elementary school reconfiguration plan.”
Superintendent James P. Harris presented in April 2016 the plan that would accommodate kindergarten through second graders in the Monocacy Elementary Center and third through fifth graders in the Amity Elementary Center.
Since then the third and fourth grade classes have moved to Amity Elementary Center.
“This is the administration’s presentation to the board,” Harris said in 2016. “We’re putting together a plan that most effectively uses our resources.”
James R. Thompson, president of Thompson Associates Architects and Planners, Harrisburg, also conceived the plan in April 2016.
He said the grade reconfiguration plan would allow for Monocacy Elementary Center – which is geared toward kindergarten – to accommodate the new, at-risk kindergarten program, as well as the expansion of early childhood education at Amity Elementary Center and Monocacy Elementary Center.
Thompson said at that meeting in 2016 that the Birdsboro Elementary Center building, built in 1989, was in “good to fair condition.”
After recently studying the building’s water leakage and masonry issues, Thompson said the building requires $1.9 million of repairs and renovations before it can reopen.
The agenda for the board’s June 17 voting meeting includes a motion to levy a tax that would balance the $1.48 million deficit, although the district’s budget has increased $582,000 from the June 4 budget meeting.
The district’s current millage rate is 30.2 mills.
Property owners pay $3,022 for every $100,000 of assessed property value.
Remaining on the table is a $5 million bond issue for districtwide capital improvements, including Birdsboro Elementary Center.
The board unanimously approved a motion to rename Monocacy Elementary Center as Daniel Boone Primary Center with the grade assignments of kindergarten, first and second grades, and Amity Elementary Center as Daniel Boone Intermediate Center with third, fourth and fifth grades.
The board also approved a motion to replace the buildings’ name panels (including the Daniel Boone Area Middle School) at a total cost of $3,432, as proposed by Signature Sign Inc. Reading.
Board members Bucky Scott and Michael Wolfe were absent from the meeting.
