Kutztown Reviewing School Options: A Task Force Presents the Board With Three Proposals for the District’s Elementary Buildings.

By Michelle Park, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Dec. 5–The Kutztown School Board is studying three options for the district’s four elementary schools at a time when student enrollment is declining.

The alternatives range from doing nothing to consolidating the schools and closing either Albany Elementary or Maxatawny Elementary for use as district offices.

The options were presented Monday night by the Building Utilization Task Force, a committee of 50 to 60 parents, residents, teachers and administrators.

Although all three options were called viable, the task force did not make a recommendation.

“It wasn’t apparent to the task force that there was any clear winner here,” said Kurt Kanaskie, one of the panel’s facilitators.

The options would be as follows:

Maintain the district’s current use of Albany, Greenwich, Kutztown and Maxatawny elementary schools. All have students in kindergarten to fifthgrade.

Consolidate students into three schools and use the fourth for administrative offices, which are now at the high school.

Create grade-level schools. That means one school would be a fifth-grade center and another would house second- to fourth-graders. Kindergarten and first-grade students would attend a third school, and the administration would move into the remaining school.

Under the second and third option, either Maxatawny or Albany would close.

School board President Don C. Vymazal said the board expects to select an option before the 2008-09 budget is approved in June. The board will discuss the options at various public meetings before that decision is made.

Kutztown’s student population has decreased for the past six to seven years, Vymazal said, noting that use of the buildings has been an issue for a decade.

Task force members evaluated the options using criteria such as class sizes, travel time for children and whether the options would support full-day kindergarten.

Six other options were considered but only three were considered viable.

Several parents at Monday’s school board meeting said they prefer maintaining the existing use of the elementary schools.

Del D. Christman, who has one child in the district, is among those in support of the status quo. He doesn’t want to see the district reconfigure its schools only to have to reverse the changes if enrollment turns around.

Others said they don’t want to see neighborhood schools closed.

“I’d like to keep it just the way it is,” said Bruce E. Kindred, who has a daughter at Albany Elementary. “I think it’s good for the kids.”

Contact reporter Michelle Park at 610-371-5022 or mpark@readingeagle.com.

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