Kutztown School Board continued talks about potentially closing Greenwich Elementary and moving all elementary grades to Kutztown Elementary as part of ongoing discussions in an effort to better serve students while gaining operational savings.
Greenwich PTO member Michelle Goch Yearick presented a PTO petition of 642 signatures that strongly urged the board to reconsider any decision that would lead to the closure of Greenwich Elementary.
Expressing concerns that closing the school would do more harm than good, the petition states that it would disrupt the lives of students and their families and significantly impact the social fabric of a tightknit community.
“It is more than just a building; it is the heartbeat of our community,” she read.
Other impacts would include increased transportation costs and a longer commute for students.
“We are advocating for the well-being of our children, the strength of our community and the preservation of a place that is both a symbol and a foundation of shared values,” Yearick said.
Discussions date to 2022 when the board approved EI Associates with McClure Company to conduct a feasibility study.
“We were feeling the crunch of a bubble coming up through the elementary school, specifically in Kutztown Elementary School, and yet we knew we had space in the district but not in all the right places,” Superintendent Christian Temchatin said. “In addition, we had some aging facilities.”
Temchatin said the advantages of having all elementary grade levels in one building include increased teacher collaboration, more programming flexibility, additional supports and financial benefits.
In 2024, proposals included using Greenwich as a K-2 building and Kutztown Elementary as a 3-5 building with an estimated savings of $450,000 based on 2023-24 numbers. The option is to close Greenwich and move all K-5 into Kutztown with a projected savings of $1 million.
Bruce Christman Jr. of EI Associates, an architecture firm based in Hanover, N.J., and Harrisburg, said consolidation makes a lot of sense.
“Anything we can to do to provide operational savings and also provide a better educational environment for students is a win-win,” Christman said.
The Kutztown Elementary conceptual site plan includes a modified bus drop-off area, relocating play areas for building addition, new parking, disabled-access and signage upgrades, site safety and security upgrades and general upgrades and repairs.
With a high of 1,772 students for 2004-05 followed by an overall 10-year decline, enrollment for 2024-25 is 626 students in K-5, 283 in grades 6-8 and 465 in grades 9-12 for a district total of 1,374.
Christman said there is about a 30% gap between the district’s capacity and current enrollment projections.
Kutztown Elementary’s 63 classrooms would remain the same after the consolidation.
“We’re just using the space better and eliminating redundancies to be able to achieve that,” Christman said.
The estimated total cost of the consolidation project would be about $31.7 million. An estimated $8 million worth of deficiencies would be addressed, according to the presentation.
Financing update
Allie Macchi of Raymond James Financial, Inc. provided an update on the board’s 2024 approval of borrowing $15 million to use interest earnings to help finance projects, taking advantage of interest rates at that time. The intent was to give the district as long as possible to consider the projects.
“That money is there sitting invested, earning right now until you need it, and it behooves you to leave it there as long as you can before you’re going to put a shovel in the ground,” Macchi said. “That allows us to earn projects dollars, too.”
Macchi said the time to restructure that debt will be prior to September; otherwise there will be an unfavorable budget impact next year.
The district will need a tax of around 0.2 mills dedicated to debt service annually for the next five years, she said.
Board members noted that if the district is going to consider doing a project of this size and scope, it should be done on the basis of not raising taxes, and it looks like that’s possible considering the projected operational savings.
Temchatin noted that operational savings will not kick in until students are in the building.
Macchi’s presentation also offered an option for the district to borrow $6 million for middle school HVAC upgrades and leave $15 million to earn.
Upgrades
Mark Gallick and Alyssa Wingenfield of McClure — a Harrisburg-based company specializing in K-12 energy projects — recommended continued upgrades for the middle school HVAC system. The roof top units and chilled water system were replaced in 2021.
“Everything you already spent money on stays intact,” Gallick said. “We’re only fixing and replacing what hasn’t been touched yet.”
While the water boilers were recently replaced with high efficiency models, the hot water pumps are original and need replacing.
The recommended classroom HVAC systems are much quieter and more efficient and provide dehumidification and proper ventilation.
“It provides a much better learning environment for the kids,” he said.
Other recommendations include replacing air handlers in some larger classrooms, a DX/HW air handling unit with dehumidification capabilities in the band room, and replacing the kitchen area HVAC with an energy recovery roof top unity with hot water.
Another recommendation is creating a conference room flex space for the middle school library that could be used as a learning space.
“We’re making that space a little more usable. Libraries have changed purposes over the years. Technology is in schools now so the space required for the library is shrinking,” Gallick said.
Jeffrey P. Huffert, middle school librarian, said the space is being used now by students.
Temchatin said most of that proposed flex space is currently office space.
“The recommendation is that if we could turn one of those spaces into a full-time potential classroom space for the future that that is the best future use of the open space,” Temchatin said.
For the HVAC and library upgrades at the middle school, the estimated total project cost is almost $5.5 million. An Act 34 grant of $475,000 for the HVAC project reduces the total cost to just under $5 million.
“We’re still soliciting pricing through all this so the goal is to bring that number down as we go forward,” Gallick said.
McClure anticipates returning April 7 with finalized costs and savings, followed by potential board approval April 21.
“We feel reasonably certain that we can get the majority of that work done this summer, not affecting school,” Gallick said. “Anything that we can’t quite get done in the summer we would do off hours or on holidays to avoid a disruption in the school.”
Comments
Huffert asked how many teacher positions would be impacted to achieve operational savings in creating one elementary sequential school.
Temchatin said he believes there would be a potential loss of two or three instructional positions through attrition but didn’t want to get into details on something hypothetical and not imminent.
In other comments, a member of the public questioned how the district can afford a $5 million upgrade project at the middle school when it has a budget deficit.
Temchatin noted the upgrades are needed soon due to the HVAC system’s age.
“There are some components we have in our HVAC systems that are not made anymore; they’re really challenging to get,” he said. “We’re lucky that some service providers have large warehouses of these components because they just don’t exist anymore.”
Temchatin said there is a level of necessary spending just to keep the buildings acceptable for learning over the next couple of years.
“I think one thing that we have to remember is we don’t have $15 million in reserves to purchase these items that need to be replaced on a 20-year basis,” board member Michael Hess said. “We carry a yearly debt service because we have to borrow money to be able to pay for these large upgrades.”
As they analyze what needs to be replaced and the reconfiguration of buildings, the intent is to get the district’s yearly debt service level, he said.
“So that on a year-to-year basis in terms of budgeting, these upgrades have as minimal effect as they can on our year-to-year budget,” Hess said.
Source: Berkshire mont
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