School consolidation OK'd
BUTLER TWP — The Butler School District is going to look different this fall.
That is because school board members Wednesday night voted 7-2 to close five of the 11 elementary schools and voted 7-2 to reconfigure grades at all remaining schools.
Broad Street, Center Avenue, Clearfield, Meridian and Oakland elementary schools will close next month. The remaining elementary schools: Center Township, Connoquenessing, Emily Brittain, McQuistion, Northwest and Summit will become kindergarten through fourth grade buildings.
Fifth and sixth graders will attend a newly formed middle school at the junior high building downtown, the intermediate high school will house seventh through ninth grade students, and the high school will house 10th, 11th and 12th graders this fall.
The district now has a kindergarten through sixth grade; seventh and eighth grade; ninth and 10th grade, and 11th and 12th grade building configuration.
The board also approved by an 8-1 vote, with Bill Halle voting against, to repurpose Center Avenue into an alternative and special needs school.
All of these changes are expected to save the district about $1.5 million. There are also plans to spend $2.2 million in one-time costs and technology improvements next school year.
Board members Carmen Bianco, Karen Callihan, Neil Convery, Jim Keffalas, David Korn, Don Pringle and Al Vavro voted to close the schools.
Dissenting board members John Conrad and Halle, along with several parents and residents who spoke, once again urged the board to slow down the consolidation process.Conrad said, “I implore you to vote no. And keep in mind, the law of unintended consequences.“You can make your choices, but you can't choose the consequences of those choices. And if we make the choice to consolidate, and tick off a significant portion of our customer base, and they decide to go somewhere else, can we afford that hit in the budget?”Other board members argued the decision has already been a long time coming. While various consolidation plans were presented in detail in October — with plans as drastic as closing seven elementary schools — the board had discussed potential consolidation for at least the past few years.Keffalas said, “Twenty three of the past 25 years, our homeowners have paid increased property taxes, even though our student enrollment continues to decline.“Many of these homeowners are not wealthy. Many homeowners are retired and are living on a limited income. Many of them struggle every year to pay their property taxes. Three out of four households in the Butler Area School District do not have school-aged children.“As a community we must be considerate of people who are retired, disabled, and have limited resources to fund our schools. Taxpayers do not have an endless amount of money. I think they're paying too much already.”
The student population peaked in 1970 with roughly 12,000 students. Butler now has about 7,200 students.Nina Teff of Butler Township, who is a school board candidate in the May 19 primary, spoke to the board following the initial vote.“Nowhere in here have you given a forecast about how this will impact the taxpayer. People hear this will save them money,” Teff said. “And what has been presented is one year's worth of information …. There's no forecast of what's going to happen beyond that.“How can you with certainty feel that this is best for the taxpayer?”Some parents and residents throughout the school year have voiced concerns about the consolidation plan such as: City elementary students who will no longer be able to walk to school, the safety of fifth and sixth graders going to the current junior high building downtown, and the amount of time students will spend going to and from school on the bus.Convery, who voted against the consolidation plan in January, said many of his questions and concerns have been answered since then.His remaining concerns were about costs since Jon Thomas of Thomas and Williamson Project Management initially estimated that the plan would save $3.5 million from the district's $100 million budget. The board hired the firm in 2013 to do a consolidation study.“There is a bigger conversation about budget that I feel has to happen,” Convery said. “I need to know on this, am I voting for the consolidation or am I voting on a budget?”Al Vavro, vice president of the board, responded.“You know, I think you're voting on improving the school district,” Vavro said. “To me, the children of the school district are the most important. And this consolidation will improve the educational system and will provide more services for those students.”
Letters from the district will be sent this week to all parents of students to detail the changes being made, including whether their children will be changing schools, said Dale Lumley, superintendent.The six full-time and two part-time teachers being furloughed already have been notified.“We have put an awful lot of time into looking at the redistricting,” Lumley said, with several meetings that have been held since February. “We've actually identified which students will attend which buildings. We've already had schedules set up, pending the vote, for visitations of third and fourth grade students.”Those visitations will begin next week.Before he adjourned the hour-and-a-half long meeting, Korn, board president, thanked board members for their hard work in making a decision.“This is not easy,” he said. “Some have been ridiculed. Some have been called out. I truly want to thank you, my fellow directors, for your time that you've put in as well as thank the administration.”
