Posted by Speaking Just For Me on February 13, 2007 at 17:30:48 (EST):
In Reply to: Re: School board meeting posted by Got Out Of Dodge on February 13, 2007 at 15:26:21 (EST):
: : I haven't said anything about the schools. I don't have children and I don't own any property, so whatever they do won't have a big effect on me.
: : I really can't make a choice on which is better. One large school would make more opportunites for better education and more advanced classes. But, the thing that turns me off the most is transportation costs.
: : I'm more for neighborhood schools, but with the mess that ASD has created, I agree something needs to be done. Why the needed to built that West Hills super school is beyond me.
: : And why couldn't they have merged Elderton with Dayton and Shannock Valley and built the school in a different location to try and make it more equal? WS looks like a nice school, but who %$&*@$! idea was it to build it on a damn swamp? Someone seriously had their heads up there ass on that one. But anyway, if they would close Elderton, if I was a student, I certainly would not want to spend half the freakin day on the bus coming into Kittanning or FC to school.
: What % of the kids are already bussed to school? And although taxes are not not going down, they are not going up. That is the key factor.. Less buildings means less utilities/less staffing in cluding janitors and teachers and lunch staff/less building upkeep and preventative maintenance/and there are more savings than that when you sit and think about it. So the bussing cost going up will be nil.
I did not create their plans, but in the last attempt to close schools and cosnolidate with the illustrious Dr. Dancu, there was one teaching position being eliminated after you cut through all the different classes and the classes being offered.
Just because you have a new building does not nessearily mean you have less maintenance. Look at Lenape Elem. from the time it was built. If the older buildings were afforded the money that went to pay off the Taj Mahal in West Hills, then we would not be in this predicament. How many times did they go over budget for the so-called "West Hills campus?" Four times, I believe???