School board to review consolidation options

April 6, 2010

By PATRICK E. LITOWITZ
plitowitz@ncnewsonline.com

Dollars will dictate how New Castle Area School District classes are reorganized.

A school board subcommittee begins reviewing the district’s options at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the administration offices, located at 620 Fern St. The group is made up of Dr. Marilyn Berkely, Karen Humphrey, Bradley G. Olson Jr., Anna Pascarella and Maryann Tofel.

“A decision has to be made,” Superintendent George Gabriel said. “We’re looking at buildings that are substandard.”

Former board member Donna Donati formed an ad hoc committee during her tenure as president in 2008. Her goal was to evaluate the district’s building needs with input from the community, administration and board members.

Enrollment numbers bolstered the need for a review. During the 2008-09 school year, New Castle reported 3,433 students. The Pennsylvania Department of Education, based on a 2008 report, projected a loss of approximately 800 students by the start of the 2018-19 session.

A report prepared by Eckles Architecture and Engineering in June 2009 presented eight options. The choices were trimmed and revised. However, when Donati met with the board in late February to discuss the committee’s work, she did not offer a final decision.

“There are too many variables,” she said. “We did not select options. All we did was review the predominant ideas.”

Donati said the group’s concern focused on the finances of the district and its taxpayers. She noted a wave of increasing expenses, such as pension contributions, teaching and administrative salaries, health insurance premiums and potential tax increases.

Declining enrollment and property values mean fewer dollars funneled into the school system.
“We have taken multiple measured steps in the last six years to cut costs, through attrition and cutting support staff,” Gabriel said. “We look at ways of making the budget more lean.”

Business manager Joseph Ambrosini said the district could apply between $3 million and $5 million from its fund balance to pay for a potential project. Federal stimulus dollars would permit funding through zero or low-interest bonds.

He said every effort will be made to avoid a property tax increase, something that hasn’t taken place in the last seven years.

The boards members are not required to adhere to ad hoc committee’s input.

The latest report from Eckles featured five proposals. Gabriel said he favors the creation of a kindergarten through second-grade learning center on the site of the Harry W. Lockley Kindergarten Center.

Third-graders would join the fourth through sixth grades at George Washington Intermediate Elementary School.

The addition to Lockley would increase its size from 38,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet at a cost of $21 million. Renovations to George Washington are estimated at $8.3 million and would be phased in.

State reimbursement to New Castle is estimated at $14.8 million.

Gabriel said the district may purchase property surrounding the school. However, eminent domain would not be used to acquire the land.

The plan also calls for the closure of Thaddeus Stevens, John F. Kennedy and West Side primary centers.

“I get the feeling we’re all for a new primary center if we have the money,” Donati said.

If the current economic climate remains in place, she said, then the district should make do with what it has.

“It’s not the building that educates the children; it’s the personnel that educate children.”