District scrambles to house students

From the BCCT

District scrambles to house students
MANASEE WAGH

Tonight the Morrisville School Board will discuss where to place some of its elementary school students.

The district quickly needs to figure out where to hold classes this semester for the more then 250 children of M.R. Reiter Elementary School. A mid-December furnace explosion in the Reiter boiler room shut down the school, forcing the administration to scramble to find temporary instructional spaces.

The students attended classes until the winter break in Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, the Morrisville YMCA and Grandview Elementary School.

Nobody was hurt in the late-night blast that blew out a window. A fault in the fuel valve operation probably triggered it, according to Tim Lastichen, the district's director of facilities.

Schools reopen today, but the district is busy starting repairs and cleanup at Reiter. The board is considering housing students in modular units at Grandview several blocks away, at least until it figures out how to deal with Reiter, said board member Robin Reithmeyer Friday.

"We will get options on Monday, like where can the kids go and how much will it cost," she said. She doesn't yet know what other alternatives will be brought up at the meeting, but thinks the modular units at Grandview may be the best available way for the students to resume instruction.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in the high school, at 550 West Palmer St.

On Jan. 14, the school board will hold a public hearing as the first step toward permanently closing Reiter. Both elementary schools have been experiencing systems problems for years. The Reiter explosion is the latest major symptom of breakdowns in the aging structures. Out of all three ailing district school buildings, the 1920s-era Reiter is in the worst shape.

Selling an elementary school building would generate money for renovating the district's other schools, board President William Hellmann said last month.

The explosion precipitated the school board's efforts to shut down a school.

School code mandates that the board cannot make any decision to close a building for at least 90 days after a public hearing to discuss community concerns.

Morrisville school district at-a-glance

* District educates about 1,000 students in 2 elementary schools and one high school serving grades 6-12. District employs about 140 people.

* Average teacher salary is about $70,000, according to the state Department of Education. Teacher contracts count for half of district's $19.8 million budget.

* District's cost per student is $13,023 for elementary and $14,215 for secondary.

* Median income in the district is $53,316.

* District finding it difficult to gather enough income tax funds, in part due to Morrisville's large transitory population. The current dip in the housing market is added strain likely to show up in next year's budget.

* The borough's schools are old and have been having problems with multiple systems for years, including electrical and heating units.

* The former school board took out a $30 million loan to construct a consolidated school housing every grade. Many residents disapproved of tax increases tied to the project for the next several years. The board spent about $2 million of the original $30 million bond for architectural and engineering fees related to the proposed building.

* In December 2008, several new school board members entered office on the promise of not raising taxes. It canceled the new school venture and returned most of the bond money, keeping about $7 million to renovate the high school. Returning the bond money cost about $2.4 million.

* Taxes are expected to drop $321 this year. The average homeowner would pay $3,371 for an average assessed property of $18,000. However, school administrators say educational programs may suffer because of pared-down budget.

* Pennsbury School District, which surrounds the much smaller district of Morrisville, has historically refused to absorb Morrisville schools. Less than a month ago Pennsbury school officials said its facilities are already at capacity and that the district cannot take on the added complication and cost of supporting 1,000 more students and additional staff.

* In 2008, some community members started putting together an education foundation to partner with businesses and private individuals for funding educational projects. The foundation recently received its nonprofit status and is on its way to generating funds from interested donors.