$2.8 million Caln office building would offices, health clinic for employees
The Coatesville Area School District Board of Education called a special meeting for Tuesday to purchase this $2.8 million office building to replace the Benner Administration building and house a new district health care center.
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
CALN — The Coatesville Area School District appears poised to purchase a $2.8 million building to replace the Benner Administration Building — and potentially host a health clinic for employees — and have called a special full board meeting Tuesday night to ratify the purchase.
The building, located just off Lincoln Highway in Caln is a 33,360-foot office building, would be used to house school district administration offices and a health care facility for employees.
This is the second time in 2013 that the district has moved forward with plans to purchase a building — a previous $3.45 million plan to buy a Sadsbury building ended when public uproar over the purchase led to it being halted.
Board members and district officials have claimed that the district needs to establish its own health facility, in order to cut health care costs for employees by some $500,000 a year. The same officials warned this past spring that a failure to open the health care center would lead to the layoffs of teaching staff to make up the difference in the budget.
The rationale for leaving Benner — the original building that housed Coatesville High School, which dates back to 1915 — is the high cost of operating the building. Officials expect to sell Benner once all district offices are moved into a new building.
Townwatch – the Sadbury building had no personal connection to any board member. A board member WORKS for the company but the company is a Mutual company and employees have no ownership interest. That board member was never present at any discussions when the board discussed it. Also, the deal did not fall through as stated in the article.
I meant, the deal did not fall through due to public outcry as stated in the article.
There’s not much parking at that citadel building, obviously they won’t be able to have school board meetings there because of that. I can see Benner becoming another high rise apartment building, something we don’t need more of on the main street of town! When are they going to stop wasting money??
I was researching this issue tonight only to find that the CEO of Integrity Health stated in an article dated 8/13/2013 that he was opening a Health Center in the Coatesville Area School District. This is the problem with this current board, no respect for the voice of the voter or taxpayer. They continue with a self serving agenda. The cost of this program along with the purchase of the building at 2.8 million and a annual cost of 3 million for the healthcare program. The article says that Integrity Health claims to have saved Toms River, New Jersey 1.98 million. This is managed care at best. The program in Toms River has 90% participation. It is said to be voluntary but the question is how do you have a fully staffed facility of doctors, nurses, xray techs, procedure rooms, ect… and no patients? What would they be paid for if this districts employees choose not to utilize them.
With the current climate of intimidation and bully mentality in the district, I wonder how they had planned to encourage the utilization of this program in the name of saving money. Did they survey the staff for interest, I have not heard that this occurred with any I spoke with about this HealthCare Plan. In light of the Union Contract negotiations coming up in 2014, did they confer with the union and have the union confer with the employees about interest and services. This is clearly Managed Care at its best. The Integrity Health Care group will manage, keep your personal info private, while collecting data about what type of services have been rendered so to determine how to best serve you they say. Determining the best MD’s and Specialist to allow in the In-Network system. The article says they Obtain Control Financially, Identify Providers with Best Outcomes, Facilitate Care Coordination, and Facilitate Shared Medical Record Coordination, calling itself A Care Coordination Hub Health Plan Integration Center. This is managed care but through the School District directly. What next!.
We need to focus on minimizing cost thru how we utilize a solicitor and what we pay him or her. Lots of savings right there. We need to focus on the disrepair of our current classroom structures. It seems to me that they are attempting to force this issue with the threat of loss of jobs to force compliance. This is the nature and mindset of this current board. They are very good at giving us smoke screens to see thru but we are much more clever and intelligent than that for we truly see the truth. For this reason there is the rush to ratify the purchase of the Citadel Building, for they made a prior commitment without our knowledge.
There must be some way to obtain the justice this community deserves. This current board has flexed its muscle and abused this community long enough. This board was to be your voice through permission by the vote to serve YOU. Can you tell I am frustrated and angry. The rush why? They knew that the new board members would see the truth and stand against the wrong being done here. We will be raped again financially as a community. Do not settle for this abuse of authority. It our taxes that must pay for their unwise decisions. Use your voice! Come out to this meeting and speak out! You have a right to be heard and to demand answers. Write to the State Board of Education and call to express your concern of the abuse of the authority given them by the State of PA. We are a D+ in our state grade. Lets see if an injunction is possible if they pass this plan and attempt to move forward. We need to get our priorities together here. See you at the meeting.
Let’s all not forget that Benner was renovated for the Administration prior to them moving in. The whole building was gutted, revamped and made anew. I can’t imagine how much more work it may need. Maybe we need to hire an independent investigator.
Stop wasting my hard earned tax dollars!!!!!
Buy your students books, paper, provide better counseling, special education .. Put more teacher aides in the over sized classrooms! And stop doing ridiculous things like this that could lead to teacher and educational support layoffs!
Oh by the way Ak, I just drove from Frazer to Coatesville on business route 30, (the road the Benner Building is on) According to the road signs placed on this road by PennDot, Business Route 30 is named both Lincoln Highway and Lancaster Ave. Maybe someone who sets themselves up as an authority who corrects others should make sure THEY are correct before they do so!!
How on Earth is the creation of a health clinic going to save the district $500,000??? I would live to see the plan behind that assumption?
Ak, I do live and have a child in this school district and you are correct that it is Lincoln Highway that the Benner Building is on rather than Lancaster Ave. Thanks for pointing this out. I hope you are as attentive to and as ready to point out the mistakes and horrible conduct of the CASD Administrators and school board as you are to correct comments on a misplaced building’s location.
this is a terrible idea and needs to be stopped.
Townwatch – you must not be from Coatesville because that is not Lancaster Avenue that benner is located on.
After the $2.8 million is spent on the building, how many more $’s that the district does not have will have to be spent to redo this building to transform it into the new CASD administration “Taj mahal?
Agreed! This is horrifying! In a district where several school buildings, that CHILDREN and teachers are in, not only have no AC but have toxic mold levels and black mold growing out of the ceiling, floor and walls and on top of that teachers are told there isn’t any $ even for pencils! Maybe if those at Benner who are sweating profusely because of their guilty concious would do the right thing and resign then this city could start to heal after years of manipulation and abuse at the hands of those in charge.
There should not be $1 more spent on administration or the football team until the newly elected school board members take office, and they and the taxpayers have a chance to look at the finances of the district. Again this smacks of a hustle by the board to proceed with their own agendas no matter what the people who elected them want. Certainly this again shows the boards lack of respect for the students and parents who have suffered at the hands of corrupt and morally bankrupt administrators and school board members. This board has shown that they are willing to push through their own misguided agendas without taking into consideration the students, teachers and taxpayers they are supposed to be representing. Is this a purchase that has been recommended by the school district Solicitor Ellison? An attorney who has already been censored by the Pa. Bar Association, and who the Chester County DA has specifically stated should not be representing the district and is under investigation for his role in missing and misappropriated funds but continues to “advise” and bill the district for exorbitant legal fees,while still having the unmitigated gaul to sit up on the stage during board meetings?? Does this purchase also have a connection to someone on the board, like the proposed Sadsbury purchase did. It is obvious that this board has not learned anything from the last several months and is still making decisions based on their own misguided judgements!! At the very least no purchase should be made until there is a buyer lined up to purchase the Benner building. The last thing the City of Coatesville and the district needs is another abandoned building added to Lancaster Ave. For far too long too many dollars have been spent by administrators and the school board on their own personal favorite projects. The time has come to put an end to this shameful and criminal behavior. It’s a shame that the people who work for the district at the Benner Building don’t have “adequate air conditioning in an older building”. Maybe it’s time for them to have to do with out, like the student academic programs, and teachers have had to for the last several years. If the people who are left in the administration have any integrity remaining after keeping silent about Como for so long they should refuse to move to a new administration building. Until all of the financial investigations are completed and the district is finally put on the track to it’s main purpose,academic success. Our district should be known for the students it sends to colleges and trade schools, not for football and basketball teams that represent only a small portion of the district’s students and are only sparatically successful with some athletes who are not academically eligible to play with out falsifacation of academic and attendance records. Until that change is put in effect we will always be known as the least desirable and most misguided school district in Chester County!