Donegal school board OKs realignment plan - Lancasteronline 03/22/2011

Donegal school board OKs realignment plan
Board requires its approval for each step of controversial, cost-saving consolidation
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Updated Mar 22, 2011 20:24
by DEAN LEE EVANS, Correspondent

Donegal school board members approved two motions Thursday related to a districtwide grade realignment plan despite opposition from two members who sought to table the plan a second time to allow more input.

Ronald Melleby and Stephen Gault voted against a motion to adopt a grade realignment plan presented and endorsed by the administration last month.

The realignment plan calls for the closure of Maytown Elementary and the Kindergarten Center; and the realignment of all kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade levels under one roof at Donegal Springs Elementary, all 3rd through 6th grades into the Riverview Elementary/Middle School complex and 7th and 8th grades into the current high school.

Moving the 7th and 8th grade levels into the current high school would be done after the district's new high school, currently under construction next to Donegal Springs Elementary, opens next year.

The plan was set for a vote March 3, but tabled until Thursday to allow more time for board members to review the details.

"I see no rush to do this now," Melleby said. He questioned the immediate impact of the plan.

He questioned John Coleman, board member and facilities committee chairman, about the two measures up for a vote.

Coleman said Thursday the grade realignment plan would likely not affect classes for the 2011-12 school year, but approving the plan now sets certain actions in motion.

Coleman and business manager Amy Swartz both touted the plan last month for its savings in the face of a budget shortfall currently estimated at $2.3 million.

The realignment plan was presented as a way to shave approximately $500,000 off the district's annual budget — mostly in building costs associated to maintain the two buildings slated to close and through the consolidation of supplies and services.

Coleman said the four schools that Donegal students would be consolidated into need infrastructure upgrades before the students can relocate.

However, Coleman said a limited realignment at Donegal Springs Elementary School — the newest and most modern of Donegal's schools — could occur sooner because the building was least likely to require significant improvements.

Winnifred Younkin, director of elementary education, said approving the plan now was vital because staffing considerations for the upcoming school years are under way.

Melleby asked, "In your opinion, it's important to push the first domino this evening?"

Younkin said yes.

Susan Ursprung, assistant superintendent, who spoke Thursday in the absence of Swartz, said the bulk of the grade realignment would likely be implemented by the 2012-13 school year.

Gault said he supported the closing of Maytown and the Kindergarten Center and the grade realignments to the current high school, but he questioned the administration's realignment of the lower grade levels.

At the March 3 meeting, he proposed that Donegal Springs Elementary house grades kindergarten through 4th grades and that the middle school house grades five and six.

He said his proposal might add one or two teachers, which countered the administration's goal of realigning grades without adding any new teachers.

A second motion Thursday authorized the administration to implement the realignment plan.

However, board member Robert Spayde got support to amend the motion to authorize the administration to recommend action and require it to get board approval for each step in the process.

That amended motion passed unanimously.

Neither action approved by the board Thursday set any plan in motion to close Maytown or the Kindergarten Center.

Read more: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/365314#ixzz1HYgR8rpO