Difficult choices

From the Pottstown Mercury.

Difficult choices 10/05/2008

The Pottstown School Board is feeling the pain — the pain of a downtrodden economy, diminished tax base, and a neighborhood school system in need of an overhaul.

That pain came into focus Thursday night when a consultant's analysis put a pricetag on plans for renovating the elementary school buildings.

Over the course of the next five years, the cost to the average property owner in the borough may add up to $1,460 in additional taxes.

The costs can vary, depending on whether the board decides to renovate all five school buildings or to renovate some and close others.

Another factor is whether the plan adds more classrooms — and more teachers — to keep class size below 21 students, as the board has previously discussed.

Those variables and others could bring the tax costs over five years down to $850 — a number that many in Pottstown will still find difficult.

The analysis offered Thursday was presented by Business Manager Linda Adams as prepared by a consultant who was basing calculations on a study by the architectural firm of Crabtree and Rohrbaugh.

The architect's study has its own variables, and at least one board member is asking for more information to better determine if the amount of new construction included in cost estimates is too high.

"In many of these estimates, what I put forward is a worst-case scenario that doesn't include any savings you might realize from economies of scale if, say, you decided to go to three schools," Adams told the board.

This board clearly has its work cut out.

The majority of members were elected last year on a platform of support for neighborhood schools, a mandate which they have taken seriously.

On the other hand, the same citizens who took that stand a year ago at the polls face school tax bills among the highest in Pennsylvania.

The board members are well aware of that burden, too, and know they can not make decisions that pile on more than people can bear.

The board on Thursday made a tentative decision to take a vote on which option to choose at the next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 16.

There are many factors to consider, and looming over every scenario is the cloud of economic uncertainty — a cloud that doesn't just hang over Pottstown.

In mapping their course, the board members can not ignore the costs of these options, and for every scenario, questions must be asked to peel away things that may be nice, but not necessary.

Are cafeteria additions built into these projections, and are they needed, or just desired? Are larger libraries or more classrooms going to have the benefit that is intended for children? Or, will the detrimental effect of the tax burden drive people from town and force a further downward spiral in property values?

Every projection must be analyzed and every notion challenged, not because the plans have been ill-prepared but because the outcomes are so important.

These are the most important decisions any area school board has had to make in recent years. They can not be postponed, brushed aside or ignored. Some aspects of decisions may require the courage to be unpopular and the strength to be wise.

The board has a leadership role, and the future of Pottstown depends on it.