Connellsville school board approves closing three elementary schools
Philip Martell, superintendent of the Connellsville Area School District, presents the district蘑菇视频 annual financial audit to the school board during its meeting Wednesday.
During the meeting Wednesday of the Connellsville School Board, president Jay Fox III reads the motions that officially close South Side Elementary, Dunbar Borough Elementary and C.N. Pritts Elementary schools, and realigns the use of Connellsville Township Elementary.
Before the vote on closing buildings in the Connellsville School District, school director Gary Wandel concludes his statement about the changing education environment by saying that 鈥渋t is not the building but what goes on inside the building.鈥�
CONNELLSVILLE 鈥� The school board voted Wednesday to permanently close three elementary schools and reconfigure a fourth to reduce expenditures for the 2017-18 school year.
Board members unanimously voted to close South Side Elementary School in Connellsville, voted 7-2 in favor of closing Clifford N. Pritts Elementary School in Melcroft and voted 8-1 in favor of closing Dunbar Borough Elementary School in Dunbar.
Directors Kevin Lape and Paul Means voted against closing Pritts, and Means voted against closing Dunbar and reconfiguring Connellsville Township Elementary School.
The closings will save the district a projected $1.5 to $2 million, district officials said.
None of the three residents who addressed the board about the closings said they opposed all the closings. One resident said South Side should be closed, but Pritts should remain open to accommodate any students who move into the district due to the opening of the Rustic Ridge Mine in Saltlick Township. Dunbar Township tax collector Marigrace Butela asked the board to table the vote.
The vote came more than three months after the board held public hearings in December on the possible closure of four of the eight district elementary schools.
In those hearings, administrators outlined closing Dunbar Borough Elementary and sending those students to Dunbar Township Elementary School; closing Pritts and sending those students to Springfield Township Elementary School; closing South Side sending those students to West Crawford Elementary; and closing Connellsville Township Elementary and sending those students to Bullskin Township Elementary.
Dunbar Borough Elementary has about 181 students in grades K-5, and Dunbar Township Elementary has about 471 students; Pritts has about 181 students, and Springfield Township Elementary has about 250 students; and South Side has about 262 students, and West Crawford Elementary has about 278 students, district officials said during the December hearings.
Responding to a question Wednesday, Superintendent Philip Martell said it hasn鈥檛 been decided which schools the students from the closed schools will attend next year.
During a slide presentation about the 2015-16 audit earlier in the meeting, Martell said district enrollment has declined by 1,400 students over the last 10 years.
In related moves, the board voted 6-3 to hire Daniel Solomon as acting director of building and grounds/transition coordinator from March 20 to Sept. 30 at $300 a day.
Martell said the hiring was needed to help deal with the logistics of closing the schools.
Board member Francis Mongell said the two administrators in charge of buildings and grounds are capable of handling the closings.
Board member James Duncan, Mongell and Means voted against the hiring.
The board agreed to hire Valbridge Property Advisors to appraise the closed schools at a cost up to $2,200 per property.
In other business, the board voted 8-1 in favor of obtaining a procurement credit card through PNC Bank.