Shoes too small? Too bad.

Here's an article about a district that has rejected the SECOND citywide referendum to expand the school facilities. Note to the Emperor and friends: Imagine sending multiple referenda out to the people for repairs and they keep rejecting the expenditures. That's a safety issue too. Tell me what you'll do then. Who would you find to do the cursory repairs report then to cover your butt?

School district wrestles with expansion

By Will Hobson

For The Inquirer
Administrators and school board members in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District are again asking "What's next?" after another failed referendum proposal.

Voters last week rejected the district's proposal to borrow $30 million to pay for a renovation and expansion of Unionville High School. This was the second try for the district, as voters rejected a proposal in November to borrow $62.5 million for the high school project.

In response to the second failed referendum proposal, the district and the school board called a facilities committee meeting of the whole for Monday night, gathering the entire school board, Superintendent Sharon Parker, and a few other administrators to discuss the district's next move.

The result of the meeting, though, is that the next move is still up in the air.

The administration did have a plan C (the two referendums were for plans A and B) that was discussed Monday night.

Plan C, with a price tag of about $5 million, would add 12 modular classrooms to alleviate overcrowding in the high school, where enrollment is expected to be near 1,400 next school year, but capacity is only 1,135. Unionville already has 12 modular classrooms.

Parker said in a phone interview Tuesday that she felt the board did not not support moving forward with plan C, because most of the $5 million would be in stopgap measures - like the modular classrooms - that would be rendered useless if the proposed renovation is ever done.

Monday's meeting, attended by about 40 community members, ended around 9:15, with a board decision to continue discussion of the issue at the next meeting, tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Parker said Tuesday that, if more modular classrooms are not the answer, perhaps the next step could include starting construction to add more rooms, with the district trying to fund the project itself.

In looking over responses given to a survey posted on the district's Web site last week, Parker concluded that voters still objected to the scope of the proposed renovation, which was not scaled down from November (only the funding was changed).

"That's a great concern to me, because the planned proposal was based on a needs assessment, and the needs still exist," Parker said.

Two former school board members, Jeff Hellrung and Keith Knauss, started Citizens for Efficient Education last year to oppose both referendum proposals. Despite their win on Election Day, Hellrung was less than celebratory.

"We know that we need a renovation, we know that we need an expansion, we just want to see one done with a lower scope or cost," Hellrung said.

Whatever the next step is, both sides agree that something needs to be done, and soon.

"It's not a good feeling to see the need continue," Hellrung said.

The Unionville-Chadds Ford District has tentatively scheduled another facilities committee meeting for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the high school library.

Check the district Web site - www.ucfsd.org/ - for confirmation on the date.