By Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

POTTSTOWN — The school district's top administrators will offer their first impressions of school board member Thomas Hylton's proposal to reorganize the schools at the next Neighborhood Schools Committee meeting, scheduled for Wednesday.

At that same meeting, Doug Rohrbaugh, a principal in the architectural firm of Crabtree Rohrbaugh, will give a presentation on what changes he thinks would be necessary in order for the plan to be enacted.

In part, the plan includes moving all fifth-graders out of Pottstown's five elementary schools and into the middle school. The plan also calls for taking what Hylton said is under-utilized space in the high school and using it for administrative offices. This would allow for the closure of the administration building at Beech and Penn streets and perhaps even the administrative annex at Grace and Franklin streets.

Hylton told the full school board March 4 that, hopefully, Rorhbaugh would be able to provide some preliminary estimates on what the work he sees as being necessary to implement the plan might cost.

At that same meeting, board member Polly Weand read a motion she intends to introduce at the March 18 meeting that would take consideration of the entire proposal away from the Neighborhood Schools Committee, which Hylton chairs, and give it to the board's facilities committee, which is chaired by board member Robert Hartman Jr.

Hartman has more than once voiced the opinion that the place for such a plan to start is with educational considerations, not facilities.

Weand questioned many aspects of the information in the binder notebook Hylton provided to the school board, which includes the specifics of his proposals as well as back-up documentation. She said she wanted Business Manager Linda Adams to offer some estimate of how much such a project might cost taxpayers before the board or administration spends too much time considering it.

Hartman agreed. "We don't want to waste the administration's time on this if we find out we can't afford it," he said.

Hylton replied that any board members should feel free to contact him about any information they believe is in error and said Weand's request for Adams' input is exactly what he wants as well. He stressed, however, that zero- or low-interest financing available through federal stimulus dollars must be applied for by April 1.

Hylton said the low-interest actually works out to be "a higher subsidy than we would get through the state, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we want to move while we can."

School board President Rick Huss said given that Hylton's proposal was only made on March 1, a complete analysis from the administration was a lot to ask for.

"That's a little short notice," Huss said.

Superintendent David Krem said the administration would have something prepared, but also had a warning.

"You had better get the pulse of this community on this," said Krem.

He warned that parents of children who will be in fifth grade next year might well protest the proposal.

"I'm not trying to scuttle this, but just trying to make a point about what parental reaction might be," Krem said.

Board member Michele Pargeon said both she and board member Julia Wilson have children who would be affected under this plan. Pargeon said she would not be allowing her child to walk to the middle school.

"This school within a school plan sounds a lot like the centers plan some people opposed. It's funny how it works for some people's plans but not for others," she added.

Wilson said she already believes today's society forces "kids to grow up too quickly. We're robbing them of their childhood."

Saying the older children in the middle school are experiencing "raging hormones," Wilson said, "I certainly wouldn't want a 14-year-old looking at my 10-year-old like that."

Huss came to Hylton's defense as the discussion wound down.

"You know, you folks asked for a plan, you badgered Mr. Hylton for a plan and he came up with a starting plan on how to do this and improve things," Huss said.

"Why didn't we all work on something together?" Weand asked.

"Why can't we start with this and then we can rip it apart and make it what we want?" Huss replied. "We have to stop this fighting and work together."

"Nobody's fighting," Weand said. "But we don't want Mr. Hylton's plan shoved down our throats."

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