Published: March 01, 2009 11:33 pm      

School district leaders weigh long-range plans

SIDMAN — Forest Hills schools leaders are polishing up their crystal ball to plan for the future with two aging schools and a shrinking enrollment.

One option being considered would close the current middle school in Croyle Township in favor of a new, larger junior-senior high school facility at the district’s main complex in Sidman.

But several factors are complicating the planning process, Superintendent Don Bailey said.

Promise of economic stimulus money from Congress is complicated by Gov. Ed Rendell’s call for school district consolidation. Rendell would like to have fewer than two school districts per county.

“We are talking three or four years down the road,” Bailey said.

“We have been successful here in planning years ahead. We want to make sure we are planning well.”

Built in 1960, the middle school sits along Frankstown Road above Summerhill, about four miles from the senior high, elementary school and district office at 489 Locust St. in Sidman.

The high school has sections built in 1921, 1936 and 1960.

Both were last renovated in the early 1990s and will soon need more work, Bailey said.

“Do we want to renovate the high school and the middle school?” he queried. “We have to look at what it takes to keep the schools operating: Transportation, personnel, utilities – all of those things.”

There are 555 students at the high school, which includes grades 10 through 12. That will drop to 466 by 2012, Bailey said.

The enrollment in middle school’s grades 7 through 9 will fall from 527 today to 440 in 2012.

A feasibility study will determine the long-range use of the facilities, but federal economic stimulus money must be spent soon.

Bailey told the school board he expects about $500,000 in federal stimulus money will be available to Forest Hills for construction.

“When we look at that, they are looking at shovel-ready projects,” Bailey said.

“For $500,000, what can we do to get a piece of that pie?”

One option that would fit into the consolidated campus plan is to upgrade the school track and add an all-season turf surface.

“If we look at combining the high school and middle school here down the road, with all the teams and the current fields, we know we wouldn’t be able to do that with one grass field,” Bailey told the school board.

Another option being considered for the economic stimulus money would be installation of solar panels or a geothermal heating system, Assistant Superintendent Ray Danel said. The question then becomes: Which school would be upgraded?

“The administration and board do their homework,” Danel said.

“We lay out all the facts and figures. That is one of the reasons we do all this planning.”

Another complication arises if the middle school is closed.

“Who’s going to want to buy that school?” school board Solicitor Gilbert Caroff asked at the February meeting. A gas drilling company showed some interest in the property, but demolishing the current school is estimated at $800,000.

The district pledges to keep its residents apprised of any major changes.

“If (a school) is going to close, they are going to know well in advance,” Danel said.

Administrators stressed that all the discussion is preliminary and could change depending on available funding, enrollment growth and other factors.

“A lot of things can happen between now and three or four years from now,” Bailey said.