Thanks to Scott Hartner for sending his notes from the Building Utilization Meeting held on Thursday, January 18.
The Express-Times' JD Malone also reported on this (read the article here) and included enrollment figures (available here). The enrollment figures are often included at the end of each board packet as well.
The simple problem is that LNES is overcapacity and the problem is expected to double next year (from 70 over to 140 over).
From Scott's notes:
In attendance were all 3 elementary Principals, Dr. Lesky, Chris Audenried, Kenneth Butz, Thomas Maher and Linda McDonald (each of these from the Board). About 20 or so parents also attended. Very civil and informative....and productive.
They want to move kids from LNES to Shafer. The 3 areas targeted are Stockertown, Tatamy and Upper Nazareth West of the Borough and North of 248.
They will ask for volunteers from all 3 areas. (An informal poll was sent to students from Stockertown and Tatamy - 32 of 50 respondents said they'd move schools - 60%)
The students in question number 235. This is current K-4 + expected entering K's.
(As a point of interest - the functional capacities of each school will drop in a few years because they are expecting full day Kindergarten)
Grandfathering was considered - If you have a kid in LNES, you don't have to move them. If you have a 1st grader in LNES and a kid entering K in the fall, they would both be in LNES in the fall and could bot finish out thourgh LNES. If you have a kid in 5th grade at LNES and one starting in the fall, the new kid would go to Shafer.
The area north of 191 and east of the borough is a fall back plan if Shafer gets overcrowded. This area would then go to Bushkill probably under the same grandfathering rules. (185 kids affected in that area now).
There will be exceptions (house moves within the district etc.).
Dr. Lesky expects the majority of the help will come from new students to the district and less of an extent from the voluntary moves. Also, he said that he expects the modulars to stay next year at LNES. Hopefully after that, the burden will lessen.
One item not included in either Scott's notes or Malone's column is the anticipated cost increase of busing students from the same area to two different schools. If 140 students were moved it would probably require 3 buses based on full capacity of 72 and knowing most are probably closer to mid 50s. And by bringing this up I'm not saying it shouldn't be done, only that it is a part of the information needed especially in light of the current budget situation.
Thanks again to Scott for forwarding his notes and to everyone who attended this meeting.
1 comment:
FINALLY!!!!
LNES parents have been asking about this for several YEARS! Hopefully it won't take several years to implement.
Even though there is a temporary increased busing cost to accomodate grandfathering-- it makes sense in the long run. Actually, had it been implemented 2 years ago, NASD may not have needed to pay the cost for portables OR the expanded driveway!
Shafer is closer to the Tatamy students. The LNES students love their Tatamy friends, but the shorter bus ride is in the best interest of the Tatamy students. They will be reunited with their friends in middle school. Many of them were originally told that Shafer would be their school when they first purchased their lots. The switch was made before they closed on their properties and their kids inherited longer days by riding a bus longer. This change is a good thing.
I never understood why these kids were redirected in the first place. Not when Lower Nazareth had approved plans for several hundred new homes!
Is the district aware when the townships are approving these developments? The reaction time seems to be much slower than our neighboring districts. We should have opened the doors to a new school by now.
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