Modular Rooms for Pennsbury

From the BCCT.

Supervisors approve modular classrooms
But one supervisor accused the Pennsbury School District of “crazy spending” and said they were unnecessary.
By CHRISTIAN MENNO

The Pennsbury School District hopes to have two modular classrooms for art and music classes up and running at Fallsington Elementary by mid-October.

The Falls supervisors last week approved, by a 3-2 vote, a land development waiver to install the structures, which will be transported from Oxford Valley Elementary.

Supervisors Robert Harvie, James Prokopiak and Jonathan Snipes voted in favor. Dorothy Vislosky and Phillip Szupka voted no.

The school district’s director of physical plant and facilities, Tom Gillette, said the installation would cost about $507,000. He called the modular classrooms a more cost-effective measure than a permanent addition to the school’s main building, which, he said, would cost upward of $1.5 million.

A covered walkway will connect the main building to the modular classrooms to protect students from the elements, Gillette added.

Though the modulars were used by Oxford Valley for 19 years, Gillette said their solid wood construction makes them as sturdy and durable as a house.

“I’d expect them to last a long, long time,” he said at the Aug. 19 Falls meeting.

Vislosky disputed the necessity of the modulars and chided the school board for what she called its “crazy spending.”

“I think the $500,000 price tag is insanity,” Vislosky said Monday. “The school administration and the school board better learn the difference between need and want. This is taxpayers’ money.”

On Monday, Gillette described the modulars’ cost as “barebones,” and said the extra space will allow for a “muchneeded” computer lab to be built in the school’s main building.

School board member Linda Palsky defended the project.

“We have people running classes in small cubby holes and sometimes doubling up,” she said Monday. “These classrooms will allow Fallsington to service its students in the proper way. This is not something we just came up with. This was part of a long-range plan to utilize our assets. I understand the concerns, but these modulars are absolutely necessary.”

Palsky, a member of the facilities committee, said the price was well within the normal range for such a job.

Prokopiak said he understands some taxpayers might oppose such additions, but the school district was well within its rights to develop its own land.

“As long as the project adheres to our ordinances and does not interfere with the health, safety and wellness of our residents, then it should be approved,” he said Monday. “If there were issues with, say, storm water management, then that would be different.

“The school district is telling us they need the space due to overcrowding and that this is the most cost-effective way to go about it. As long as they’ve met all the criteria, I felt I had to approve it.”