But formal vote put on hold; parents question class sizes
By Kyle Carrozza, Correspondent, The Times
Although no formal decision was made Tuesday night, school board members suggested that it was increasingly likely that South Brandywine Middle School would remain open, while North Brandywine would be the first target for replacement, rather than both aging middle schools.
CALN – The plans for renovating and/or replacing South and North Brandywine Middle Schools continued to be the main point of concern at the Coatesville Area School District’s school board meeting on Tuesday night in the 9/10 Center.
In the beginning of the meeting, an item was added to the agenda to vote on the approval to rebuild North and make repairs to South while keeping it open for the next five years. However, when the time came for a vote to approve the plan, the item was removed in favor of holding further discussion.
“We’re looking at thousands of dollars, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a voice vote,” said board member Diane Brownfield, who moved for delaying the decision until further discussion was held.
At last month’s meeting, school board members agreed that the district could not afford to rebuild both schools as originally planned. Though they did not hold a formal vote Tuesday night, board members seemed to agree that North, in more dire need of renovations, would be rebuilt while South would be repaired and kept open.
“What is in our budget is to do a new North and hold South for five years and revisit it then,” said board member Laurie Knecht.
This plan still seems to be the consensus, but board members said they wanted to talk about it more before making any official decisions.
Another issue brought up during the meeting regarded increasing class sizes. Katie Hadzor, whose children are students in the district, voiced concern. Because of budget issues, the district has laid teachers off, resulting in larger classes, and Hadzor said she wanted board members to make sure they kept this issue under control.
“I just ask you to re-examine this, and keep this in mind; we could be playing with fire,” said Hadzor during the public comment portion of the meeting.
The district’s Director of Elementary Education Jason Palaia responded to the concerns, stating that the administrators, too, have been looking at the numbers.
“We look at enrollment in all buildings on almost a daily occasion,” said Palaia.
Palaia also said that the number of students in each class was not the only aspect of enrollment being considered but also factors such as group sizes for when classes divide into smaller groups during reading time.
“We were well above guidelines a week ago,” he said.
In other district news, the Superintendent Richard W. Como acknowledged the district’s staff, commending how clean and organized the schools have been this year.
According to Como, a visiting Chester County Intermediate Unit staff member commented that Coatesville’s schools were “better than any other district they visited.”
Como also congratulated South Brandywine students Crystal Brau, Nyliah Dalton, Julian Maurer, and Sam Noland. This month, South Brandywine partnered with the National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum for “Coatesville Remembers 9-11”, a program to remember the tragic events of 2001. Brau, Dalton, Maurer, and Noland created pieces of art that were selected by members of the community and the Graystone Society to be displayed at the Lukens Executive Office Building on Sept. 11.
