By Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

POTTSTOWN — A detailed plan for reorganizing Pottstown elementary schools, moving fifth grade students to the middle school and 4-K students into preschools, was unveiled Monday night.

The unveiling was done at a meeting of the Neighborhood Schools Committee by Pottstown School Board member and committee chairman Thomas Hylton. He said the proposal would end the use of modular classrooms while costing millions less than building new schools or expanding existing ones.

The proposal also calls for closing the administration building — and possibly the administration annex on North Franklin Street — and moving those offices into the high school.

Hylton said documents filed with the state show both the high school and middle school are far below their functional capacity. Considering the $40 million debt being paid on renovation projects completed in those buildings, the district owes it to taxpayers to use space those sites more efficiently.

Also, the proposal would redistrict elementary attendance areas in such a way that, Hylton said, only students attending Barth Elementary School would require busing, thus reducing those costs.

Board members Robert Hartman and Michele Pargeon, as well as board treasurer Judyth Zahora said it was obvious that the proposal had been crafted outside the public view and was being presented Monday as a finished product.

Hylton called the proposal "a discussion paper," saying it was a place to begin board deliberations. However if the district hopes to apply for low or zero-interest federal stimulus funding for which Pottstown is eligible, some decisions may need to be made by April 1.

Calling the deadline "critical," Assistant Superintendent Reed Lindley proposed that the administration and representatives from both sides of a divided board be put "in the same room" to come up with a proposal "that we can present publicly. I think we put people of opposing viewpoints in the same room and allow the administration to do what you pay us to do," said Lindley.

"To get into the room, you have to agree that we need to reduce spending and provide a quality education," he said.

Here are some of the basics of Hylton's proposal:

Fifth Grade

He said while educators agree smaller class size is vital to early education efforts, "in Pottstown, we're headed in the opposite direction." The average class size in the high school is 18; in the middle school it is 21 and in the elementary schools it is 24 students, he said.

Another way to look at it, said Hylton, is by square footage. Each elementary student in Pottstown has 115 square feet to call his or her own, whereas each middle school student has 269 square feet and each high school student 291 square feet.

The state is projecting a slight increase in the number of elementary age children in Pottstown and a decrease in the high school population in the next five years, said Hylton.

His proposal, Hylton said, is the least expensive way he can think of to keep elementary class sizes down; get rid of the district's 23 modular classrooms, thus saving energy; avoid costly construction; and make the most efficient use of what the district already has.

Under the proposal, the middle school would, in essence, be divided into two schools of 400 students each, each with its own principal, "under one roof."

In all, 65 middle schools in Pennsylvania use this grade configuration, including Twin Valley and Conrad Weiser in Berks County; Tredyffrin-Easttown in Chester County; and Upper Merion and Lower Merion in Montgomery County, Hylton said.

Using state documents the district filed to get state reimbursement for the middle school and high school renovation projects, Hylton said that the district's documents show the middle school has a functional capacity of 959 students, but only now houses 609.

According to the class schedule, many middle school classrooms are empty several periods a day, he said.

Further, said Hylton, by 2013 the state will have instituted new certifications for teachers that do not match the K-5 grade configuration. Rather than the current K-6 certification, teachers will have a Pre-K to fourth grade, fourth grade to eighth grade and seventh grade to 12th.

Keeping the elementary schools as they are under these new certifications would make it more difficult for principals to shift teachers among different grade levels, Hylton said.

He suggested that a task force be formed to look at this suggestion and how moving fifth grade to the middle school would work in Pottstown. He also suggested that board member Valerie Harris, who has a child who would be affected by the change, be part of that task force.

Attendance Areas

Hylton said when the old attendance areas for the five schools were drawn up in 1980, the student population was 23 percent minorities and the district was trying to equalize minority representation in each school. Now, he said, the student population is 55 percent minorities and more recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions actually prohibit redistricting to achieve racial balance.

Using data put together several years ago using the borough's GPS system, Hylton's proposal includes a map in which all but students living in some southern portions of town could walk to their respective elementary schools, thus saving money on busing and addressing problems of childhood obesity which have made headlines nationwide.

According to the maps he provided, the attendance area at Rupert would expand somewhat; Edgewood's would contract; Barth's would expand into areas in the south of town now served by Edgewood; and Lincoln's and Franklin's areas would remain roughly the same as they are now, with some expansion west for the Lincoln attendance area.

The reduction in busing does not include special education buses or buses to private schools, he said.

4-K

Currently, Pottstown has 126 students with the district's "pre-K partners" and 111 students as part of the 4-K program in the elementary schools.

Partners in the program —Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten — include the YMCA, the YWCA, Montgomery County Early Learning Center and Montgomery County Head Start.

A study conducted by Director of Education Jeff Sparagana found "kids who are in the PEAK program are just as ready for kindergarten as kids who took the program in our own schools," Hylton noted.

Under his proposal, the district would fund the programs so students who go to 4-K in the schools for free would attend programs at these locations for free as well, but because salaries are lower in these programs, the move would save money for taxpayers, said Hylton.

"If they do as good a job as we do, why not turn the whole thing over to our PEAK partners?" asked Hylton.

Two of those programs, the Montgomery Early Learning Center and Head Start, operate some classes in church classrooms and providing more students might result in Pottstown's financially struggling churches being able to rent out more space, he said.

Administration

Arguing that Pottstown has much more administrative space than much larger districts, Hylton also proposed moving part or all of the district offices into the high school and closing the building at Beech and Penn streets.

Pottstown has 35,000 square feet of administrative space for 3,200 students, whereas Lebanon School District needs only 10,000 square feet of administrative space for 4,000 students, he said. Reading School District has 18,000 students and uses only 30,000 square feet.

At the high school, documents filed with the state indicate the functional capacity is 1,413 students, but actual current enrollment is less than 800, Hylton said.

The 2001 architectural study by Gilbert Architects indicated the district's administration needs only 11,000 square feet, Hylton said.

Even keeping the Administration Annex building and closing the main building at Beech and Penn would save money, Hylton said.

"This building we're in right now is almost as old as Rupert," said Hylton, noting that selling it would have no impact on education in Pottstown. "There's no such thing as a neighborhood administration building.

"When you're hurting for money, you have to try to be as efficient as possible and make sure rooms are used as much as possible," he said. "We're paying the mortgage on (the middle school and high school). We're paying to heat them and the electric on them, we should be making the best use of what we have."

Also part of this proposal would be to continue with the idea of installing geo-thermal heating in the five elementary schools, as well as the controversial window replacements at Edgewood and Rupert.

Hylton said his proposal finds the middle ground between doing nothing, and a "shut and gut" renovation of elementary schools which would cost between $28 million to $40 million for local taxpayers, none of which would result in smaller class sizes in the elementary grades.

The cost estimate for his proposal, Hylton said, would be between $12 million and $14 million.

Committee member Nat White, reading from a prepared statement, said the proposal would "solve a great deal of our space problems with less impact on our taxpayers." He added that it would "save on busing and get rid of the modulars."

Reaction to the presentation was mixed, with some residents and board members questioning portions of the proposal, particularly the educational impacts and the manner in which a fully realized proposal was presented to the board.

Perhaps the most extreme reaction was from school board member Robert Hartman Jr. He said it was obvious the proposal had been formulated at private meetings away from public scrutiny.

"This is a very detailed plan with a lot of details which I've never heard discussed before. It answers my question that this has been done outside the public window," he said. "You're still not concentrating on the educational aspects first. I'm embarrassed to be a Pottstown School Board member right now. I never thought I'd say that."

Zahora and former school board member Amy Bathurst-Francis, both of whom served on the board when PEAK was in its earlier stages, voiced concerns about tax money being used to support churches. Monday was the first time either raised those concerns publicly about a program that began in 2005.

"All this needs to be run past the staff," said board member Polly Weand.

"I wholeheartedly agree," replied Hylton.

Teacher Lindi Vollmuth, who was representing the teachers federation, said Hylton's presentation was "a lot to absorb," and confirmed from Hylton that moving 4-K classes to outside providers might result in a reduction of teaching staff.

She also noted that she did not hear anything in the plan that would result in classrooms being "updated to current educational needs," using the absence of sinks in classrooms as an example.

Lindley and Sparagana both said that Pottstown is at a "critical" point and that some way needs to be found to move forward.

"Pottstown is at the most critical juncture I've seen in the 17 years I've been in Pottstown," said Sparagana. "The decisions we make will either help us to stabilize, regardless of the economy, and hopefully attract some families to this community, or we're going to go up in smoke."

Jeff Leflar, who identified himself as being part of the Code Blue residents group, said afterward, "I was quite surprised at the extent of the research put into this. It's a lot to absorb in a short amount of time. I'd like to see the numbers and the cost to taxpayers."

Leflar added, "At this point, I'm not opposed to any of what was presented, particularly if it can make sure our tax rate does not double. If it can be shown it would have the taxes level off, then it is probably a plan worth considering."

The entire proposal as presented by Hylton will be posted on the school district Web site for anyone to view at www.pottstownschools.com The school board next meets Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the middle school LI room.

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