Decision to close building draws near
The Daniel Boone Area School Board must wait another three months until it can vote to close the Birdsboro Elementary Center for the 2018-19 school year.
The school board held the required public hearing for “School Reconfigurations” on April 6.
During the next three months, the board will hear public comment and discuss only at public school board meetings the issues of closing Birdsboro Elementary Center or keeping it open.
Superintendent James P. Harris presented to the school board and 30 public attendees the elementary school realignment plan, which is the basis for closing Birdsboro Elementary Center.
He said the school realignment plan and building closure is based upon elementary student enrollment projections presented in April 2015.
A year later — in April 2016 — he and James R. Thompson, of Thompson Associates Architects & Planners, Harrisburg, presented to the board and public, the elementary realignment plan due to declining student enrollment.
That plan puts all elementary grades into two school buildings: kindergarten through second grades will be located at the Monocacy Elementary Center, and grades three through five will be in the Amity Elementary Center.
Birdsboro Elementary Center would then be empty for the 2018-19 school year, resulting in the need to close it, per the requirements of the state Department of Education.
Harris said the “district areas of concern” are: academic achievement, enrollment, finances, school facilities, as well as “the next 20 years.”
The realignment plan would allow for each grade to be together, a strengthened core program, would increase teacher collaboration and professional development, and an increased district focus on early literacy.
The financial issues cited include the district’s current PSERS (Public School Employees’ Retirement System) contribution of $7.4 million (more than six times what it cost the district in 2010-11), a continued increase in medical insurance costs, staffing costs (teacher salaries), and stagnant revenues.
Harris said the school board has kept the district’s millage rate at 28.9618 mills since the 2011-12 school year, until 2016-17 when the board approved an increase to 29.7 mills.
High expenditures and stagnant revenues has resulted, he said, in a decreasing fund balance, from $2.7 million in 2016-17 to an estimated $1.3 million for 201718.
A $1 million fund balance is expected for 201819, $4.6 million by 2019-20, and a $9.4 million deficit by 2020-21.
Harris said his preliminary plans for the empty Birdsboro Elementary Center building are still “years away,” until interior and exterior building repairs are completed.
His plans for Birdsboro Elementary Center include an Early Childhood Center/ Pre-K Counts program run by the Berks County Intermediate Unit, and as a community resource center.
Birdsboro Elementary Center’s repairs are estimated at $3 million over the next 10 years.
Harris said his ideas for “The Next 20 Years” originated from the academic (career) pathways initiative of High School Principal Preston McKnight.
The future of the school district’s curriculum would include “personalization and customization,” student ownership, increased rigor, innovative learning spaces and environments, interconnectivity — “anytime anyplace learning,” and real-world application plus project-based learning.
“I think this is a financial issue [to close Birdsboro Elementary Center],” said Julia Olafson, 637 Jefferson St., Birdsboro, adding, “Birdsboro Elementary Center is always on the chopping block, and it always comes back to money: support staff, cost of teachers.”
Cindy McGee, vice president of Birdsboro Borough Council, said the district has conducted two separate studies on growth.
“The public says time after time enrollment is increasing, that your calculations are wrong, and the economic downturn will be reversed,” said McGee, citing the opening of Birdsboro Power LLC in June 2019, and new “developments” in Amity Township.
“If our economy is revitalizing, what are we hurrying for [to close Birdsboro Elementary Center]?”
“You keep blaming our current financial situation on past boards, but you seem to be making the same mistake,” said McGee.
Birdsboro Mayor Joseph Peterson read to the board the April 10, 2014 letter from the Berks County Planning Commission to the school district, which did not support closing the building beginning with the 2014-15 school year.
The letter, included in the April 6 public hearing agenda, states that “Birdsboro Elementary Center is not just a neighborhood school, but more importantly it is a community-centered school. Such schools are part of the cohesive community fabric making a community a desirable place to live, work, learn, worship, and play.”
“Closure of a long standing community-centered school can have devastating land use, social and economic consequences for an established community. A school can have a powerful influence in retaining and attracting new families to older neighborhoods, as well as serve as a catalyst for redevelopment and investment.”
Robert Myers, 308 W. Second St., Birdsboro, said he was very proud as previous mayor of Birdsboro for 13 years, to turn the previous “sleepy town” into a “thriving community — a great place to live, work, and play.”
“I implore you to make our community the best it can be — retain our community school,” said Myers.
“We shouldn’t be in a rush to close the building,” said board member Carol Beitz after the meeting.
“I want all the kids to be together — they love it — but what is the rush to close it, if not going to sell it?”
Beitz had recently urged the board to consider closing Monocacy Elementary Center instead of Birdsboro Elementary Center.
The board recently toured Monocacy Elementary Center but no motion was made to solicit a real estate appraisal of Monocacy Elementary Center in order to determine its market value.