SLSB Votes to Consider Closing Elementary School

Southern Lehigh School Board members voted unanimously Monday night to schedule a public hearing required by the state school code if a district plans to consider closing an elementary school.

Board members agreed that they will need to consider closing an elementary school, although it remains uncertain which one of the two that need millions of dollars in repairs—Hopewell and Lower Milford—would be shuttered.

As has been the case at recent school board meetings, parents, teachers and supporters from Lower Milford Elementary School packed the audience to listen to presentations by Southern Lehigh School District administrators and architect Danielle Hoffer of Gilbert Architects in Lancaster, Pa., who discussed options for enlarging both Liberty Bell and Lower Milford.

A number of findings were presented to the board by superintendent Leah Christman, director of support services Todd Bergey and finance director Jeremy Melber, all of whom were charged with reporting data to the board members, who continue to grapple with a number of options that involve either renovating or closing Lower Milford and replacing or closing Hopewell Elementary School.

Board members earlier agreed that it would not be worth renovating the current Hopewell building, which was built in 1970 and is estimated to need upwards of $12 million in repairs.

Lower Milford parents have championed the fact that their small school is where about 185 kindergarten through third grade students are able to learn in a caring, intimate environment.

However, Lower Milford's location makes it a more expensive school to operate, information presented by Bergey revealed.

While transportation to Hopewell costs an average of $467 of per student, Bergey's findings indicated that the average cost of transporting a student to the more remote Lower Milford school is $976 per student this year.

The main reason for the high cost is the fact that the buses carrying Lower Milford students carry an average of just 29 students, whereas buses to Hopewell and Liberty Bell carry an average of around 40 students.

Christman noted during her presentation that the popular perception regarding elementary schools is that "small is better," but she said research that substantiates a correlation between school size (as opposed to class size) and academic performance is limited.

Typically a small school is defined as one that has fewer than 275 students.

"If a school is very small, then it tends to be very expensive per pupil," Christman said.

She also told the board that Lower Milford's location in a more remote, rural setting should be evaluated from a crisis management standpoint.

She argued that response times to Lower Milford could be slower because of its location—an argument that did not sit well with township supervisor Mike Snovitch, who was seated in the audience and later addressed the criticism.

"We have two full-time police force workers," he said.

Snovitch called the Lower Milford Volunteer Fire Company "class A" and commented that ambulance response times to the elementary school shouldn't be longer than 10 minutes.

"Don’t make a rush to judgment on shutting down a school, because once you shut down a school, it’s over," he urged the board. "We give you priority treatment there in the township."

Christman responded to his remarks by saying she was mainly talking about a situation in which help from beyond the immediate area would be needed.

She also highlighted a recent incident in which she said it had taken state police 50 minutes to respond to a minor accident involving a school bus in Lower Milford.

At Monday's meeting, the board also requested more information from Christman about another option presented by board member Michael Quigley, who suggested that instead of rebuilding Hopewell and/or expanding Lower Milford or Liberty Bell, the district consider utilizing extra space in the 150,000 square-foot Joseph P. Liberati Intermediate School to house elementary students.

"It reduces our costs. We don’t have to build a new school," he said. "I think the numbers verify that it's a viable option."

Christman agreed to return to the board with data about the so-called "Option F," but argued that the intermediate school, which she said has been referred to as a "megaschool," was "not designed for little children."

"It's certainly an option that I...think is worth looking at," said board president Jeffrey Dimmig, of Option F. But he added, "I don’t know that Hopewell parents are going to be real excited with that particular configuration."

Board members did not announce a date for the special public hearing that will be held, but they must advertise the meeting at least 15 days in advance.

The next regular Southern Lehigh School Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m.

Photos: School board and audience members view a slide that highlights transportation costs for students attending the Southern Lehigh School District's three elementary schools, and a slide of an overhead plan for an expansion of Lower Milford Elementary School prepared by Gilbert Architects.