School District Announces Building Offer
Armstrong School District Board President Joseph Close listens to Solicitor Lee Price adjudicate the meeting during reorganization. Close was unanimously re-elected as president, with fellow Region II Board Director Chris Choncek re-elected as vice-president.
by Jonathan Weaver
Armstrong School District Superintendent Stan Chapp and other administrators might be changing office locations next week.
Administrators received an offer for the Ford City administration building – located at the corner of Main Street and Pleasantview Drive – and acreage by Sheetz, Inc. for $412,000.
Include the current school district facilities plan, building consolidations and expected profit, and Chapp said the move might be a worthwhile idea.
“Looking at the facilities plan, we have an opportunity to consolidate operations,” Chapp said. “By closing this building, we’d save, I believe, about $10,000 a year based on utility costs – that’s just one area.”
Monday’s regular monthly meeting will be held at West Hills Primary in Kittanning so that school directors are available to consider the new venue and cast their vote.
Chapp worked with West Hills Primary Principal Paula Berry and Facilities Director Bill Henley on the proposal.
Enrollment figures indicate a second-grade classroom may need to be added in the 2013-14 school year, but space for such is already designated.
West Hills Primary currently educates nearly 700 students, but Berry could not project space requirements beyond.
“That’s hard to speculate because I don’t know what our enrollment will be this year for kindergarten, so I don’t know what it will be for first grade two years from now,” Berry said. “But, we do have some options if that does occur.”
Some of those options include re-evaluating transfers or splitting up classroom spaces.
The current moving plan might include relocating Title 1 classrooms and resource/custodial spaces. She said locker rooms will also be converted to storage areas.
“There’s a lot of flexibility in terms of layout and how much space is there. A lot of things can be re-configured,” Chapp added.
The current administration building is projected to need roof and façade improvements.
School directors will also vote on other financial matters - including refinancing a 2006 bond and adding course offerings – Monday. A preliminary budget is due by the end of January 2013.
Some of those new course suggestions include creating a Biology lab to better prepare for the state Keystone Exams, several social studies updates – including advanced placement and online options – and introducing keyboarding courses to fourth-graders, among other courses.
There is a projected staffing increase, which will be determined at Monday’s voting session.
Chapp said ongoing concern with the federal ‘fiscal cliff’ will have an impact on school district programs and staffing.
School board leadership will not change in 2013.
In the reorganization meeting, Board Director Joesph Close was re-elected board president, and Board Director Chris Choncek re-elected board vice-president.
They both were the only nominations from the eight school directors present for their respective positions, and were unanimously approved.
Board director Paul Lobby was absent.
Close, a Region II board director entering his 12th year of representation, said directors will be heavily-concerned with construction and budget items in 2013 and he hopes to press forward.
He recalled his ideas upon his initial election.
“I had some thoughts then. I had some visions of what we’re doing – not exactly what we’re doing – but made some concessions along the way and, in my opinion, we’re where we needed to be a long time ago,” Close said. “We finally got the opportunity to do it.”
Close’s term expires at the end of 2013.
Open caucus and regular monthly meetings will regularly be held at 7:30PM this coming calendar year.
Local News | jweaver December 7, 2012
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By Tankster, December 7, 2012 @ 6:45 AM
The administration building going out to West Hills? Wow! What a surprise! Next on the list will be the Armstrong County Courthouse, because they also have people who come to work via Route 28. You knew West Hills wanted their piece of pie out of this deal. What a sham! Disgraceful! We finally get a decent location for the new school and then greed has taken over, again. Go to the next meeting and say no to West Hills…..they milked the taxpayers enough with free give-aways to build up their tax base.
By jerry6, December 7, 2012 @ 8:20 AM
What happened to the idea of putting the administration building staff in Kittanning Twp. elementary building?
By jorn jensen, December 8, 2012 @ 10:08 AM
Sell the administration building to Sheetz - it is an eyesore and we taxpayers should not have to spend any more money on it.
By Jerri, December 8, 2012 @ 7:13 PM
This could have been done a long time ago if the current board wouldn’t have spent so much time and money undermining the previous board. Now they’re desperate for money and patting themselves on the back trying to fool us into thinking this was all their doing. What a joke. Had renovations went through, we taxpayers would not be out $8 million for nothing (fees for projects ended), the buildings would be almost done by now with no increase in busing, the admin building would have went into the Kittanning Township building, and there would have been a community college moving into one of the empty buildings.
This board has yet to disclose how they’re paying for this new school nor have they disclosed total costs. They all have connections with the teachers union and were supported by the teachers union to get elected. Surprise! This board gets to vote on a new contract soon.
Anyone that believes anything this board says is a fool. Remember how many lies they said to get elected. Lies saying they wouldn’t build a new school and saying they wouldn’t lock taxpayers into thirty years of brick and mortar. But that’s exactly what they’re doing. This board lies to the poor while they work in secret to please the rich. They can’t be trusted.
By Tankster, December 9, 2012 @ 4:43 PM
They are going to be dumping more money into West Hills, also. We got to make sure the parking lot and the designated spaces are nice and sparkling for the intellectuals who run this district. West Hills will cry “overcrowded” in a few years and we will be building there, again.
Poor, widdle admininistration people do not want to drive that far off of Route 28. Fine, go find a new job somewhere else.
Geniuses, just geniuses!