POTTSTOWN PA – Assuming all pieces of the deal fit together within a week or two, it looks like students of Ringing Rocks Elementary School next year will occupy the soon-to-be-vacated St. Pius X High School campus on North Keim Street, Pottstown PA, while Ringing is being renovated.
If Pottsgrove lease negotiations go well, they'll change this sign in the fall.
The Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors on Tuesday (May 25, 2010) authorized Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis to sign a lease agreement “if we can come to terms,” Landis said, on contract language still being hashed out by attorneys for both the district and Pius’ owner, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The potential lease price, which earlier this year was estimated by district Business Administrator David Nester at about $366,000 annually – excluding the cost of utilities – was not disclosed, nor were any other terms on which the board gave guidance during an executive session before its regular meeting Tuesday.
Landis and board members acknowledged a decision was overdue on whether the district should lease Pius or house Ringing students in modular classrooms at its middle school campus on North Hanover Street, Pottstown. They kept pursuing the lease, however, because it was the favored choice of a large and vocal group of parents who attended a February (2010) meeting on the subject.
The archdiocese is set to move from the Pius building this summer as it opens the new Pope John Paul II High School in Royersford, which will accommodate students from both Pius and the also-to-be-closed Kennedy-Kenrick High School in Norristown. It and the district have been negotiating for months over lease particulars, the building’s environmental quality, and other factors.
Because the board won’t meet again until mid-June, and because relocation plans must be put into place quickly if a lease agreement is reached, Landis urged for and received the board’s permission to sign an acceptable deal.
Also Tuesday, the board agreed to conduct a special meeting July 20 (Tuesday) at 7:30 p.m. in the administration building, 1301 Kauffman Rd., Pottstown, to accept bids for the reconstruction of Ringing Rocks, 1401 Kauffman Rd. Public calls for those bids, totaling about $18 million, were issued by the district last week. The board usually does not meet in July.
Landis said he hoped to plan an August ground-breaking for the work at Ringing.
Related (to Ringing Rocks Elementary School renovations):
- Pottsgrove Authorizes Pius Lease For Ringing Relocation
- Call Goes Out For Ringing Rocks Construction Bids
- Board OKs Ringing Rocks’ Preliminary Plans
- School Vestibule Design OK; No Decision On Rocks’ Relocation
- Ringing Rocks Plan Approval Held Until May
- Ringing Relocation Decision Deferred Again
- Township Legal Move Saves District Time, Money
- Economic Tales, Exec Sessions, And Long Night At Pottsgrove
- Geothermal Now ‘Locked’ Into Ringing Re-Build
- How Estimated Costs For Ringing Shape Up
- Less Is More In School Project, Planners Learn
- Bids Sought For Ringing Project Asbestos Removal
- Ringing Relocation Decision Possible In Two Weeks
- Restaurant, Ringing Projects Win Conditional Uses
- Ringing Rocks, Restaurant Hearing Topics Tonight
- Pottsgrove Student Enrollment: Up? Yes. Down? Yes Again
- Green Discussion At Ringing Results In Red Faces
- Pottsgrove, Archdiocese Still Discussing Pius Lease
- Ringing Rocks Relocation Discussion Set For Tonight
- In The Ringing Rebuild, Whither Pius?
- Ringing Rocks Relocation Plan: Modulars At MS
- Ringing Rocks Construction Cost Hearing Tonight
- Planners OK Ringing Rocks Land Sketch
- District Sets Dec. 3 Hearing On Rocks Budget
- Pottsgrove Asks State Help To Pay For Ringing Re-Build
- As School Opens, Progress On Ringing Rocks’ Project
- 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 Board of School Directors’ May 25 meeting):
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