LOWER POTTSGOVE PA – Caught unawares by a larger-than-expected kindergarten enrollment for the start of school, now 18 days away, the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors on Tuesday (Aug. 11, 2009) authorized administrators to seek quotes on the cost of a new study to help predict future building and staffing needs.
The last such demographic study was completed in Spring 2005, district Business Administrator David Nester said. Depending on the extent of information wanted, he estimated a new study could cost between $15,000 and $35,000.
Front entrance at Ringing Rocks Elementary School.
The desire to get a better handle on potential future enrollment was prompted by a discussion, held during the first of the board’s two August meetings, on proposed renovation and reconstruction at Ringing Rocks Elementary School.
Although plans for that building are incomplete and not yet approved, engineering studies of the school’s Kauffman Road site will get under way soon as a preface for the project. Additional classroom space is among the oft-cited needs at Ringing. Just how much space must be added is likely to be determined, in part, by how many students the district expects to educate in coming years.
What surprised administrators this year, district Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis told board members, was a 2009-2010 kindergarten enrollment 8.3-percent higher than anticipated. Applications to attend the entry-level elementary classes totaled 240 youngsters districtwide, 20 more than predicted earlier, according to Landis. Enrollments and corresponding expectations during the past two years have been “pretty close,” he added.
Data from the last study, however, “is now getting beyond a five-year period, where there can be a lot of fluctuation in demographics,” Nester said. “The more data we have to make a decision, the more confident we can be in the decision.”
“I think the community would feel a little more confident about where we’re going with Ringing if we have that data too,” board member Nancy Landes agreed. “But will (the study) be done in time to help us” with decision-making on renovation plans?, she asked. Nester said he believed it would.
Directors April Kontostathis and Robert Lindgren both expressed reservations. Lindgren suggested the board should wait at least a year before undertaking the study, because it could be supplemented by information from the 10-year U.S. Census that will begin in 2010. Kontostathis objected to the reliability of such studies in general.
“It always seems like we’re just throwing darts at a board in these things,” Kontostathis said. “I don’t see what it buys us.”
Landes’ motion to request quotes, rather than authorize a study immediately, was a unanimously accepted compromise.
Related (to Ringing Rocks Elementary School renovations):
- Surprise Enrollment Spurs Demographic Interest
- District Assembles Ringing Rocks Planning Team
- District OKs Architect Negotiations
- Consensus On Ringing Renovations: $16M
- Ringing Rocks Proposals Aired Tuesday
- Ringing Rocks Re-Examined April 14
- Pottsgrove To Trust-But-Verify On Ringing Plans
- Ringing Rocks Plans Take Another Step
- No Shortage Of Ideas At Pottsgrove Meeting
- Weigh In On Pottsgrove Renovations
- Framing The Rocks Discussion
- Response Mixed To Pottsgrove Improvements
- District Invites Public For Study Results
- A Different Rocks, But Only As A Concept
Related (to the Pottsgrove School Board’s Aug. 11 meeting):
- District Assembles Ringing Rocks Planning Team
- School Board OKs Administrative Switch
- Lobbying Pays Off In Band Trailer Purchase
- Superintendent Confirms Plan To Switch Administrators
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