Options eyed for elementary schools

By Dena Pauling

PHILIPSBURG — One proposal to restructure Philipsburg-Osceola’s three elementary schools is “off the table,” school officials said Wednesday night.

Instead, some board members are leaning toward a different option to turn Philipsburg Elementary into a fourth- through sixth-grade school and making Osceola Mills and North Lincoln Hill elementaries into kindergarten to third-grade schools.

Currently, all three house kindergarten to sixth grades.

The initial proposal was to make one school for kindergarten to second grade, another for third and fourth grades and the third one for fifth and sixth grades.

The latter option would still save money — though not as much — and would cut the amount of shuffling young children would have during their elementary school years. It would also allow P-O teachers who instruct the same grades to work together in the same school, officials said.

“I would strongly support looking into that alignment,” board member Stephen Switala Jr. said. Board members Thad Ritter and Bob Selfridge also expressed interest in the plan.

Switala had compared standardized test scores in more than 60 schools in the state that have a similar arrangement and found that the majority, on average, have better scores in math and reading than P-O.

The restructuring ideas, generated at recent budget work sessions in front of a crowd of parents, are propelled by the retirement of 20 administrators, teachers and staff at the end of this year — a higher-than-usual number due to an incentive in the teachers’ contract.

Hoping to cut costs and not raise property taxes above the district’s index of 6.4 percent, the board has been discussing ways to reconfigure its schools to avoid hiring replacements for all of the vacancies and to equalize class sizes.

Pre-kindergarten, which Cen-Clear Child Services operates at Philipsburg Elementary, might have to relocate to Osceola Mills or North Lincoln Hill if the restructuring is approved. It’s still uncertain if any plan has enough board support to pass.

“I think this is all just too fast,” board member Linda Bush said. “... We only have two weeks to decide this.”

By a show of hands, Bush, Jim Smith and Rebecca Timchak indicated that they would rather stick with the “status quo” for next year. That would be to hire replacements for the retirees and keep the elementary school configurations as they are.

Board member Gene Wardo said he would favor eliminating a few positions and redistricting only a certain group of students. Board member Rob Morrow was absent; one seat on the board is vacant but may be filled before a vote is taken.

Keeping the status quo would likely mean that property taxes would rise more than 6.4 percent, according to figures prepared by business administrator Michael Conte.

The district’s preliminary 2008-09 budget figures show that spending in the district is expected to grow 3 percent over last year — from about $24.8 million to $25.7 million.

Conte attributed the spending increases in part to a rising retirement contribution rate and a 20 percent increase to health insurance, as well as rising food service and fuel expenditures. “There is nothing here for budgetary reserve,” he said.

About $244,000 still had to be allocated and “remaining pieces” to be added, Conte said, include a clocking system for Osceola Mills, curriculum improvements and building maintenance items. Conte has said that he practices zero-based budgeting, meaning he constructs each year’s budget from scratch.

A crowd of more than 20 people attended the budget meeting, asking questions and offering suggestions. One questioned whether administrators are cutting back, too.

Superintendent Charles Young said he planned to ask the technology administrator to fill an elementary principal position, which became vacant by retirement.

“The urgency here is precipitated by the retirements — not a financial crisis,” he said.

At the next budget meeting set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at North Lincoln Hill, the board plans to hear more of the savings and costs associated with the latest restructuring option and provide more direction. A final vote is expected on May 27.

Dena Pauling can be reached at 231-4619.