In case you missed it the first time we posted it, here it is again. Worth a re-watch to focus on what the goal is: Building for the future of Southern Tioga School District.

Friends -

This isn't an SOS statement, it's my personal statement - I'm just not sure where else to put it. Here's Cheryl Clarke's article about last night's meeting.

Even though I'm encouraging everyone to not speak about the school closure/building project issues, I continue to encourage you to attend the next few meetings: Monday, Nov. 5, Tuesday, Nov. 12, Monday, Dec. 3, all at North Penn at 6:30 p.m. There are plenty of other issues to watch: the Adequate Yearly Progress report came out last meeting - how are the board and administration going to respond? the board is considering a new bullying policy - is it adequate? Is the new outsourced cafeteria management system working? Being involved helps the board represent us better.

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My name is Heidi Jones, PO Box 126, Blossburg. I’m commenting tonight as an attorney, not as an advocate – to provide some context for the law by which the school board members are making a decision about closing a school.

Under Pennsylvania law and regulation, when a school district considers a building closure, they must hold a public hearing hearing under Title 24, Article 7, Section 780 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, and provide 30 days for written comments. Then, the board must wait an additional 60 days to vote. The district held the public hearing on September fourth and then residents were able to submit written comments by mail or email until October fourth. The district wants to hear from all of us and is using this special process to ensure that all our comments and opinions about these decisions are properly recorded and submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education as part of the official record.

Pennsylvania Department of Education requires that copies or transcripts of all the public comments at the public hearing or in writing during the 30-day period be submitted with the District’s request to close a school to ensure that citizens were given opportunity to speak. However, the regular citizen recognition period during board meetings does not qualify as part of that official record for the school closure process.

Today is October 9th. The cooling off period started on well, should have started on, October 5th and should continue until the board votes on these issues at its December 3rd meeting.

So, that’s the law.

I want to encourage everyone to abide by the law and respect the cooling-off period because it has an important purpose: it allows us all to contemplate this huge decision calmly and rationally, with the careful deliberation it deserves. We’ve all begged the board to see the decision from our own perspectives, we’ve raised lots of excellent questions, and we’ve provided all kinds of relevant information. The board has been incredibly receptive to our questions, feelings and thoughts, and they have conducted this process in an open, inclusive and above-board manner, far beyond the requirements of the law.

But now it’s time to wait. It’s time to take a step back and let the board do its job, what we’ve elected them to do – to represent us, our communities, and our kids and make the best decision possible given the finite limits on knowledge and time. We can’t know what the future will hold – for population, for state funding, for whatever – but we can trust that this board has done its job thoroughly and conscientiously. I encourage everyone to respect the process by waiting patiently for its conclusion and choosing to respect the cooling off period.

Cooling-off periods are common in decisions with legal weight – for example, if you’re trying to get a divorce in Pennsylvania, you have to wait 90 days. If you’re refinancing your home mortgage, you have a three-day right of rescission after you sign the loan papers. For school closings, the law allows us this time to reflect and to lower the emotional energy. By continuing in this heightened emotional atmosphere, we are doing harm to our communities - both within and between our communities – that will be very hard to repair as we complete this process and make solid plans for how to implement the decisions that the board will make.

I’m not only asking us, our communities to respect the cooling-off period, I’m also asking the board tonight to consider closing comments on the school closure and building project issues. The cooling off period serves an important purpose and I think it should be respected.

I'm sorry I've neglected the blog here - I guess I've been using that newfangled Facebook instead. So, to catch everyone up...

Last Monday, STSD held the public hearing about the school closure issue. After Superintendent Keith Yarger delivered a presentation (PDF), seventeen people spoke on the record, including Jill Nickerson, Tom Bogaczyk, Victoria Bubacz and Zach Everett. As Jill and I developed our strategy for this meeting, we decided our best approach would to be respectful, polite, and quick - I was really worried we'd be there until midnight hearing all the comments, but we were out of there by 9:30. Jill delivered a joint written comment with over 350 signatures supporting North Penn High School, and we're going to continue gathering signatures.

However, it seems I need to take a moment to explain how a public comment process works. It's a formal set of rules that dictate what is appropriate action at various times. In this case, the district published a notice on August 20 that it would hold a public hearing on Sept. 4under Section 780 of the Pennsylvania Code. So for Sept. 4, I wrote a detailed, technical comment and Jill delivered it with her short overview speech. The written comment period opened at the same time and will close on Oct. 4. Then the board has to wait 90 days to hold the vote, which is called the cooling-off period. They will vote on Dec. 3. The cooling-off period tries to ensure that the board isn't carried away by community sentiment but can focus on the facts, the public spoken and written comments, and make a clear-headed decision. 

This also means that commenting on the school closure issue is INAPPROPRIATE at any other time. If you wanted to speak about the school closure issue, Sept. 4 was your opportunity. If you want to write a comment, you have until Oct. 4 to submit it by mail (241 Main Street, Blossburg, PA 16912) or by email publichearing@southerntioga.org. 

I hope you'll join us for the Southern Tioga School Board's monthly work session this Monday, August 4, 6:30pm at North Penn High School auditorium. RSVP here at the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/139914209480627/ 

Also save the date: next Monday, August 13, 6:30 pm at Liberty High School is the school board's regular monthly meeting where we expect them to vote on two critical issues: the potential to close a school and continuing the NPHS building project. We need everyone there! 

Our goals

We want to see increased educational opportunities for our students:

• Equity across the district.
• More foreign language instruction.
• More advanced placement courses.
• Full schedules of electives.
• Potential for vocational technology instruction.

We want the district to improve its fiscal sustainability:

• Keeping all schools open would result in a $4.6M budget gap in five years. We wholeheartedly wish we could keep K-12 in each community but the fiscally responsible option is to close one in 2013 and look at consolidation for the future.
• Consolidating to one central high school would result in significant operational savings, which can then be devoted to improving educational opportunities.

Questions? Comments? Don't have Facebook? Talk to us here or email us at sos [at] blossburg.org

Friends -

We haven't been posting much here as we've been waiting for the results of the feasibility study by Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, an architectural firm hired by Southern Tioga School District to examine the district's buildings & sites, capacities, and projected enrollments, and to make recommendations about the facilities for the future. CRA gave presentations at the June 11 and July 9 school board meetings. You can find the powerpoint presentations here.

The presentations were clear as mud, so I re-wrote them into something understandable. Here's the nerdy version: Feasibility study explanation.pdf (135.16 kb). Jill & I also made a two-page easy-to-read version: let's build for the future.pdf (164.28 kb)

You might have read about the "Our Kids Count" meeting in Mansfield Monday night. Here's the Williamsport Sun Gazette article by Cheryl Clarke. Sean Bartlett may have identified a major mistake in CRA's capacity calculations. I didn't re-run any of the numbers when I did my explanation, so those numbers may be faulty.

What's next?

• ATTEND THE WORK SESSION! Monday, August 6, 6:30 p.m., NPHS auditorium.
• ATTEND THE SCHOOL BOARD MEETING! Monday, August 13, 6:30 p.m., Liberty High School.

We support building a school in Blossburg that allows the district to plan for the future, that will allow for a more equitable education across the district's high schools. More than two years of foreign language! More advanced courses! Liberty & NPHS are so small that it's really hard to offer these fancy things. Also, the Island has the capacity for all the athletics currently offered at both LHS & NPHS, but the combo will be explosive in the NTL!

Really, you need to be there. If you have any questions about this info, please contact me or Jill and we'll try to get answers if we don't know them.

Thanks for all your support, folks. See you at the meetings!

Someone pointed out that the research I've been referencing isn't easily accessible via this blog so here it is

Penn State Center on Rural Education and Communities

-- http://www.ed.psu.edu/educ/crec/topics/development   Schools & community development

-- http://www.ed.psu.edu/educ/crec/topics/transportation   Transportation

-- http://www.ed.psu.edu/educ/crec/topics/consolidation   School consolidation

Rural School and Community Trust

--http://www.ruraledu.org/articles.php?id=2038   School size 

If you're interested, here's the letter Blossburg Improvement Association sent the STSD board members back in Nov. 2009. It neatly summarized our overall argument: if NPHS closes, Blossburg will die; if the district loses the tax base of an entire town, it's going to be in much worse financial shape in the long term. 

BIA-SaveNPHS.pdf (66.47 kb)

One more note - I'm aware that the school board is having loud debates about the direction of the district and these terrible budget decisions, but we're not seeing that at the public school board meetings. I'd like to gently remind the board members of their duties under the state Sunshine Act and hope to hear more public debate at the next work session on June 4. (This is my position, not necessarily one that's endorsed by the Save Our Schools Coalition - I haven't asked for a policy discussion on the topic.)

Jill & I put together an ad for this week's PennySaver hoping to initiate more conversation and awareness of the complex issues around the school board's decision-making process. Feel free to print and share with friends & family or post to Facebook or other websites.

Penny saver ad 5-7-12.pdf (195.91 kb)

 Source for enrollment numbers http://www.southerntioga.org/documents/RenovateNorthPennCorrectednumbers9-2010.pdf

At the April 9 school board meeting, the board decided to accept the administration's suggestion that they hire a consulting firm to perform a feasibility study that includes an examination of the buildings and other facilities, the educational programming, staffing and cost-saving options. The feasibility study is to be conducted immediately. It's really important that parents, students and community members attend the next work session and board meeting!

• May 7, 6:30 p.m. North Penn High School - work session
• May 14, 6:30 p.m. Mansfield High School - board meeting

What we're doing:

• Mailing a postcard reminder of these meetings to Blossburg-area residents.
• Providing board members with a summary of the research we conducted in 2009-2010.
• Keeping in touch with district administration.

What you can do:

• Attend the meetings!
• Get your friends & family to attend the meetings!

SOS met tonight at the Kiwanis building and had a good conversation about how we want to approach the school board meeting Tuesday, April 10, 6:30pm, NPHS auditorium.

1. Please come to the meeting! Bring the whole family! It's important that we show our interest in this process.

2. We'll have addressed postcards for you to write a message to Rep. Matt Baker and Sen. Joe Scarnati about education funding. We'll have talking points available in case you need some help with words! We'll take care of mailing them.

3. We're all in this together - we're one school district facing a very difficult challenge. We want to emphasize that closing any school is a losing situation for the community and for the district, especially if it's done hastily. 

4. If you want to speak at the meeting, we hope you'll also emphasize the cooperative nature of this effort.

Thanks so much to John & Norma Martin for urging us to have this meeting and providing refreshments. Thanks to all who attended.