Penns Valley hosts public hearing as an elementary school moves toward closure
The Penns Valley Area School District took another crucial step toward the potential closure of an elementary school facing dwindling enrollment.
Administrators held a public hearing Monday to provide community members with a wide-ranging look at the state of Penns Valley’s district and Miles Township Elementary School, which could close before the 2025-26 school year begins if the school board approves such a measure. Several residents also shared feedback during the hearing inside Penns Valley Junior-Senior High School’s auditorium.
From enrollment struggles and operational costs to sharing resources and logistical questions, here’s what you need to know about the future of Miles Township Elementary School.
Enrollment on the decline
Declining student enrollment within Penns Valley’s district was a major theme of the evening’s presentation. According to district data, Penns Valley’s schools have collectively seen enrollment dip by about 10.8% since the 2010-11 school year, Superintendent Brian Griffith said. The enrollment drop since the 2010-11 year will increase to roughly 13.4% over the next five years, though that figure trails the projected enrollment decreases for neighboring districts in State College (20.2%), Bellefonte (17.3%) and Bald Eagle (30.1%), according to presentation data configured using live birth rates.
Penns Valley’s enrollment observed a recent peak with nearly 1,500 students in the 2013-14 school year but has dropped to about 1,250 students today. That is expected to decline a bit more before remaining steady through the next decade, according to Dustin Dalton, the district’s director of instruction and data analytics.
Elementary enrollment has declined but remains steady for Miles Township Elementary, which boasts the lowest enrollment total of any elementary school in the district. The school has instructed roughly 100 students annually since the 2010-11 academic year, largely thanks to district efforts to shuffle students between buildings.
“The reason Miles Township has remained at about 100 students over that time — and right now we’re at about 85 — is because we continually move students out of other boundaries and place them into Miles Township,” Dalton said. “So, students who would go to PVEI have been transferred to Miles Township to try to keep our numbers a little more balanced so we don’t have 25 kids in a class here and 15 or 14 in a class out there.”
Back in April, Penns Valley’s school board approved measures that will send Miles Township Elementary’s incoming kindergarten and third-grade students to either Penns Valley Elementary and Intermediate School or Centre Hall-Potter Elementary School for the 2025-26 school year. Miles Township Elementary previously moved to send its nine-student 2024-25 kindergarten classes to Penns Valley Elementary, where those students will remain for the first grade next year.
Should it continue operating, Miles Township Elementary will instruct only Pre-K, second and fourth-grade students for the 2025-26 year.
Although birth rates are keeping steady, administrators say demographic changes are behind declining kindergarten enrollment. Griffith, the superintendent, said the district concluded low enrollment could be due to an influx of Amish and other populations who do not send their children to Penns Valley’s public schools.
Should Miles Township Elementary close, the district’s other elementary schools have the capacity to absorb more students, administrators said. Penns Valley Elementary and Intermediate School and Centre Hall-Potter Elementary School use about a third of their respective capacities of 620 and 400 students. Both schools are equipped with up to four special education classrooms and could convert some existing rooms, including old-school computer labs, into more traditional classrooms.
“As you can see, there is room to grow,” Dalton said.
Operations and finances
During Monday’s presentation, Griffith was honest: Closing Miles Township Elementary won’t save Penns Valley a fortune.
The school requires between $70,000 and $80,000 to operate each year, covering costs for utilities, repairs and general maintenance, supplies and more, the superintendent said. The district expects a sharp but short increase in end-of-life capital improvements costs over the next few years, potentially requiring more than $700,000 for the school that was last renovated ahead of the 2004-05 school year. Regardless, the building itself remains in good physical condition, administrators said.
“This is not a situation where we’re looking at a catastrophic tax increase or any kind of huge savings by closing Miles Township, but there is certainly some savings to be had,” Griffith said, noting the district approved a $33.3 million budget for the 2024-25 school year.
Penns Valley could save even more if Miles Township Elementary is closed and taken off the district’s long list of responsibilities, Griffith said. Discussions surrounding the future of the building if the school closes will come at a later date.
Districts across Pennsylvania must provide constant access to some services, including special education, gifted programming and support for English language learners. Shannon Reeder, principal of Penns Valley Elementary and Intermediate School, said the district has struggled to consistently provide those needs for students, but it has found students who transfer out of Miles Township Elementary can access necessary programming more easily.
Miles Township Elementary already operates in partnership with the district’s other elementary schools and their resources. Penns Valley’s elementary schools share itinerant instructors and some specialized service workers, including counselors, social workers, nurses and speech and language specialists. Katie Bish, who joined Monday’s presentation, serves as the shared principal of Miles Township Elementary and Centre Hall-Potter Elementary.
If Miles Township Elementary closed, Penns Valley would retain all current staff, administrators said. The closure would push the district’s elementary schools to instruct four sections of third grade students, not five as currently planned.
“When it comes to staffing, we’re not looking at any furloughs, but there could be some reassignments,” Bish said. “Should these reassignments need to occur, we would work with the teachers in helping to create the best fit for grade level and school building teams.”
As an open-enrollment district, Penns Valley has worked to increase enrollment at Miles Township Elementary and make the school an attractive option for families. Some key efforts surrounded technology, as it was the district’s first school to receive SmartBoard access and one-to-one device matching for students.
An early look at potential changes to busing following the potential closure of Miles Township Elementary shows a marginal increase for the district’s longest ride time. Today, it takes an estimated 51 minutes for students in Aaronsburg to reach Miles Township Elementary by bus. Following the school’s potential closure, the longest bus route by time will jump to 53 minutes for students riding from Livonia to Penns Valley Elementary and Intermediate School.
Public speaks out
Just four guests in the audience entered comments into the record following the district’s presentation. A few others had handmade signs read aloud, including ones that said “Save Our School” and “I Love My School, Don’t Take It Away From Me.”
District parent Scott Martz argued Penns Valley isn’t giving families enough time to prepare for Miles Township Elementary’s potential closure — even if such a decision is inevitable. He spoke at April 23’s school board meeting and again implored the district to give the community more time to prepare for a potential school closure.
“My whole purpose that night was to say, ‘Don’t rip the Band-Aid off these folks from Miles Township and close the school next year.’ It’s too quick,” Martz said Monday. “These folks are going to be at the Grange Fair [in August]. The last thing they want to do is focus on transportation and worry about what school their kids are going to go to. They want to enjoy the end of their summer. Don’t do this to these folks.”
Sarah Berndt, who lives just steps away from Miles Township Elementary, held a handmade sign at the public hearing after receiving it from another attendee. She said the school was critically important for her daughter, who now works as a physician’s assistant.
“She had a wonderful experience,” Berndt said. “She’s adopted and biracial, and she could’ve had a lot of trouble in a non-supportive school. [Miles Township Elementary] really concentrated on making every single kid succeed. That’s the kind of school this is, and it deserves to stay open.”
One person spoke out in support of the proposal. Jerome Abbott, a 1970 Penns Valley graduate, proposed sending students to nearby charter schools or even having families homeschool them if they are not interested in attending other Penns Valley elementary schools.
“I have no military-related PTSD, but I do have nightmares of Miles Township Elementary School,” Abbott said before flashing his decades-old report cards. “I think they should close it, not keep it open, because I went there in the 1950s and got a very poor education.”
What happens next?
By hosting a public hearing on the potential permanent closure of Miles Township Elementary, Penns Valley has “started the clock” for proposing such a measure for full consideration. Under Pennsylvania law, districts must wait at least 90 days after a required public hearing to vote on and approve a permanent school closure.
The Penns Valley school board is likely to consider a motion to potentially close Miles Township Elementary at an Aug. 12 board meeting, administrators said Monday. Such a meeting is not yet on the official calendar of the board, which is instead scheduled to convene Aug. 6 for a regular meeting. That date notably falls within the required 90-day cool-down period after a public hearing.
The district will keep open the record surrounding the potential closure of Miles Township Elementary until Aug. 11, though community members are welcome to speak at the proposed Aug. 12 board meeting. The public can email questions and comments to public_comment@pennsvalley.org or send feedback by mail to 4528 Penns Valley Road, Spring Mills, PA 16875.
If Miles Township Elementary is approved for closure later this summer, Penns Valley administrators will prepare transition plans for students, faculty and staff, moving plans for custodial staff, transportation notifications for families and opportunities to meet with district officials at an orientation event.
“Our community, generally, is pretty thoughtful,” Griffith said. “We may not all agree, but they’re thoughtful and provide good insights into what the school district should be doing. I encourage you to share your thoughts with me and with the board.”
%202.JPG)