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Evan Brandt File Photo
The question of whether the former Edgewood Elementary School will become a Fifth Grade Center has been put off for another school year by the Pottstown School Board.
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When the time came for a decision Thursday night, the majority of the Pottstown School Board (or at least those who were present) said they are not ready yet.
Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said if the board is truly ready to decide to open the former Edgewood Elementary School as a fifth grade center in the 2020-2021 school year, the decision needed to be made last night.
"You can't tell me in August, because that will be too late," he said.
Battered by complaints about behavior and bullying in the middle school, the board and administration have been bandying about the possibility of opening the former Edgewood Elementary School building as a fifth grade center as a way to extract the younger students from the middle school environment.
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File photo
Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez and Business
Manager Maureen Jampo during the first Edgewood Town Hall meeting.
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Edgewood was closed in 2015 and the four remaining elementary schools renovated and expanded, made possible by the decision to move the fifth grade into the middle school, which had the space but perhaps not the temperament.
As the bullying complaints mounted -- making a media splash in March when shots were fired into a West Street home, allegedly as the result of an ongoing dispute among eighth grade girls -- the district offered up several options.
In 2018, one idea floated by Rose was year-round school for middle school students, but a district-wide survey found very little community support for the idea.
In it's place, the administration floated the idea of moving the fifth grade out of the middle school and into Edgewood.
A series of "town hall" type meetings were held and there seemed to be support for the idea, despite its $6 million price tag.
Having just passed a budget minutes earlier that will raise property taxes by $111 for the average homeowner (more on that in tomorrow's post), it's not a price the board majority present is ready to pay.
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| Other options considered by the school board |
With Vice President Katina Bearden and members Susan Lawrence and Kim Stillwell absent, the board indicated the only member present was ready to press ahead -- Raymond Rose.
"We've talked about it ad nauseam and my instinct is to go ahead with the fifth grade center," said Rose. "It's the best option to move forward. We have to think about the good of our students over the money issue."
Board members John Armato and Bonita Barnhill both said they disagreed with the decision to turn the middle school into a grade 5-8 school when it was made.
Calling it "ill-conceived," Armato said nevertheless, "it's what we have now. And given that we still haven't answered the question of where does the money come from, I'm not prepared to say open the doors in 2021.
Board member Kurt Heidel, who only secured the Republican line in the May 21 primary and said he is a long shot to win reelection, said he was unwilling to make a decision that other board members would have to deal with.
"I'm not in favor of moving forward," said Barnhill. "We just raised taxes 3.3 percent, and the Legislature is not taking action on fair funding. How much more can we strap the public?" she asked.
"I thought it was a bad decision to put them into the middle school, but at this point I can't see us jumping into another fire," Barnhill said.
"I can't believe we're even considering it," said board member Thomas Hylton, who first proposed the grade alignment at the middle school as a way to save money and reduce the cost of renovating five elementary schools.
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It's estimated Edgeood would need $6 million worth of work to
be used as a fifth grade center.
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"We just raised taxes to the max," Hylton said of the budget vote on which he provided the only no vote. "Now we want to spend another $6 million?"
School Board President Amy Francis said while she favors using Edgewood as a fifth grade center, "I can't imagine moving forward with anything that talks about spending that kind of money right now."
"We just had hundreds of propel turn out just because we were talking about eliminating one position, " she said. "I don't want our community to have to deal with that ten-fold"
We'll have a report on the passage of the $64.3 million 2019-2020 budget in tomorrow's blog. In the meantime, here are the Tweets from the meeting:
A Reluctant Budget & No Edgewood Decision
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