Board Mulls Turning Edgewood into Kingergarten Center, Moving 5th Grade Out of Middle School

The former Edgewood Elementary School.

Having held off on any decision to turn the former Edgewood Elementary School into a fifth grade center, and removing that class from the middle school, the school board is considering a different option.

Last night, Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez made a presentation to the full school board that mirrored one made to the facilities and finance committee on Oct. 3.

The idea is to consider turning Edgewood into a kindergarten center. That would create enough space in the elementary schools to allow fifth grade students to stay in their home elementary school for another year before moving to the middle school.

Since the fifth grade was moved into the middle school in 2014, making it the largest school population-wise, parents, teachers and students have complained about behavior problems and bullying.

When bullets ripped through a West Street home one March evening in an incident connected to what police and school leaders say is a long-running dispute among eighth graders, the discussion reached a whole new level.

But even before that, the district was already deep into an exploration of moving the fifth grade to the former Edgewood school, which was closed in 2014 after Pottstown's other four elementary schools were expanded.

The process included a series of town hall-style meetings hosted at the building where the pros and

Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez at an 

Edgewood town hall in February

cons of the move were discussed. Looming large was a price tag of more than $6 million to get the building back into shape.

The building is currently occupied by two education tenants, a Head Start program and an alternative education program called Cottage 7 Academy.

But last year, the school board put the breaks on the exploration, saying it was not ready to make the decision.

During the Oct. 3 facilities committee meeting, Rodriquez said the idea is not a new one, but at the time it was first considered, it was quickly obvious that Edgewood does not have space for both the kindergarten and Pottstown's growing pre-K presence. 

The building has 14 regular classrooms and Pottstown has 12 kindergarten classes. So there is no way to fit both kindergarten and pre-K in the building without expanding it, an even greater expense. Accordingly, it was discarded.

But since the board shelved discussion of turning Edgewood into a fifth grade center, the problems at

Town hall attendees toured Edgewood classrooms in February.

the middle school have remained. "The object here is to move the fifth grade back into elementary school," Facilities Committee Chairman Kurt Heidel made clear.

Rodriguez said the administration still wants to talk to the teachers, conduct a "listening tour" with parents and speak to those who use the North End Early Learning Center opposite Franklin Elementary, once used as an administrative annex but increasing used to house pre-K classes.

That building started out with one pre-K classroom and is now home to 90 pre-K students, Rodriguez said. He said because the pre-K program is spread among so many partners and so many buildings, it is sustainable without including it in the Edgewood building.

"This is not to say that moving the fifth grade into Edgewood is off the table," said Rodriguez. "This is just another option."

And like all options, it has benefits and concerns.

As outlined by Rodriguez, the benefits include:

• Addresses the main concern of too many students at PMS 
• Addresses some concern of a 5th grade center not being as popular or sustainable 
• Alleviates some Spec. Ed. and LRE Requirements associated with 5th grade 
• Allows for flexible grouping with some of our most vulnerable students 
• No or less special education concerns 
• Less reconfiguration required at Edgewood 
• Much more common model throughout the commonwealth and more sustainable.

The concerns he outlined include the following:

• Cost-This will require significant investment in the building and require a hefty bond purchase 
• Bussing- the affected bussing areas will remain the same, but the age is young to be on the bus independently.
• 10 teachers from PMS to Elementary bldgs rather than 12 
• The unknowns…. 

Rodriguez said there will be three public meetings on Edgewood kindergarten center idea.

The meetings will be Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 at Rupert; Monday, Oct. 28 at 3:30 at Barth; Friday, Nov. 8 at 9 a.m. at the administration building on Beech Street.

Things to keep in mind include:

• No matter what, Edgewood will need repairs. There is no scenario where we keep Edgewood,

  

  Rodriguez reviews basement repairs needed
  at Edgewood during one of the building tours
  in February.

  but don’t repair it.
• Resale value has been considered, but the deferred maintenance and limited use options also drives down the market value, making a sale scenario far MORE expensive, than including the property as a part of the solution.

There is also the matter of the tenants. Rodriguez said as leases with the current tenants expire, the possibility that the school make take the building back has to be taken into consideration when negotiating new leases.

Under the timeline Rodriguez outlined last night, the board would have to make a decision by March of 2020. If the decision is to make the change, the new kindergarten center would open in August of 20201.

Bond Re-Financing

The other item of interest from last night, which also occurred during the first five minutes, meaning I missed it, is a bond re-financing that could save the district between $300,000 and $500,000.

The bond is from 2017 and still has $9.915 million on it.

Jamie Schlesinger, from PFM Financial Advisors LLC explained to the board that the current interest rate on the bond is 2.55 percent but in eight years will re-set to a variable rate as high as 4.5 percent.

He said the better option is to lock in a lower interest rate now, while they are at historic lows, for the life of the bond. "We won't do it if you won't save money," he said, explaining that because of the variable rate, the actual savings will not be known until the bond is fully paid off.

As a result, the motion the board passed Thursday night is to set "parameters" for the bond sale.

Because of the structure of the bond, the savings will be realized over the life of the payments instead of in one lump sum, as often happens with re-financing.

And with that, it's late and I am putting the head to bed.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Close to the Edge(wood)