Moving students angers some parents

From the BCCT.

Moving students angers some parents
Reiter Elementary remains closed. Students are attending classes at three different sites, and that has parents concerned.
By MANASEE WAGH

M.R. Reiter Elementary School students have been uprooted from their classrooms.

And parents are angry.

A furnace explosion Saturday is keeping Reiter closed until at least Jan. 5. More than 250 students will have temporary classes in the middle/high school, the Morrisville YMCA and Grandview Elementary School. Nobody was hurt in the explosion, but the school remains closed while the borough and the district insurance company investigate the cause.

On Tuesday, district officials met with a large crowd of parents in the Morrisville Middle/High School gym to show them where their kids will learn for the next several days. Teachers took parents on tours of classrooms and spaces where their first- and second-graders will restart today. The young students will stay with teachers and aides at all times without mixing with higher grades, said administrators.

Families had many questions and complaints. They said they wished the school board, which has been in office a year, had fixed known facilities problems earlier.

“This is a nightmare,” said Tammi Bresen, the mother of a first-grader at Reiter. She didn’t like that three first-grade classes had to learn in makeshift classrooms in the library, with only a partial wall separating them.

“People aren’t happy, especially because the (furnace) was already having problems before,” said Jim Mahler, the father of a Reiter child. He said the board should fix the furnace immediately.

Oil odors began the afternoon of Dec. 10 in Reiter and then resumed Thursday morning, forcing students to leave while the district had a fuel pump replaced by an outside company. Later the furnace exploded, breaking a window in the boiler room.

One probable reason for the explosion is that the fuel valve to turn the fuel flow on and off got stuck in the open position, allowing fuel to continue pumping even after the burner shut off, said Tim Lastichen, the district’s director of facilities.

The district’s insurance company will likely pay for cleanup and repairs, said Elizabeth Yonson, district superintendent, Tuesday.

Built in the 1920’s, Reiter is older and in worse shape than Grandview, even without counting the boiler explosion, Lastichen said. Vitetta, the engineering and architectural firm the school board hired to analyze district schools, will probably report higher renovation costs for Reiter, he added.

William Hellmann, the school board president, said he expects the completed Vitetta report this week.

Some parents questioned whether Reiter would be closed permanently. Tonight, the board plans to discuss having a public hearing to close one of its two elementary schools. If the county buys the land as preserved open space, said Hellmann, the remaining two schools would benefit from the money. It could be used for renovation, he said.

However, Nancy Sherlock, president of the borough council, said Tuesday that she doesn’t think the borough would buy the land. Nor would the borough plan to prevent the district from reopening Reiter, as current rumors of an injunction suggest.

“An injunction means usurping power. We aren’t doing that,” she said, adding, “I don’t think the borough needs any more open space. I can’t speak for other council members.”

Hellmann said he would be amenable to a single school building for all students, “if we could work it out that way, but I’m not sure the town wants a kindergarten through 12thgrade school. We’d always have to have at least one elementary school,” he said.

“I am not averse to spending money on the school district as long as the money is spent efficiently. I don’t have specific examples of how right now,” continued Hellmann.

One thing sticks in Hellmann’s mind: three buildings for less than 900 children are too many, he said.

“To me it’s just common sense,” he said.

Trying to integrate hundreds of additional students into the high school would be a logistical nightmare, especially without constructing new building additions to make sure upper and lower grades don’t mix, administration officials said. Different hallways in the high school have dedicated spaces like computer labs, science labs and the woodshop. Right now, the cafeteria and library cater to upper grades only.

If a public hearing to sell a building takes place, the school board would have to wait 90 days before making the decision to sell it or not, according to school code.

Robin Tohm, the elementary schools’ PTO president, urged parents to attend tonight’s school board meeting and make their voices heard.

Yonson told parents at Tuesday’s open house that she would not send students back to Reiter unless air quality experts and cleanup crews say the school is safe.

“Everyone has been wonderful and pitching in to make things as easy as possible to manage for the next (several) days. I’m very grateful for the flexibility of the staff,” Yonson said. “I’m very hopeful we will be able to get kids back to Reiter. But it’s up to the board,” she added.