The Neighborhood Schools Myth
POTTSTOWN, PA – Back in December, we posted an article about Neighborhood Schools in Pottstown. You can read that post here.
In a Preservation Pottstown advertising promotional that was mailed to Pottstown residents in 2001, then board president George Wausnock made the following statement regarding the issue to abolish the neighborhood school system in Pottstown, “We think that would be a disaster for Pottstown. Our children have been able to walk to school for generations. We need to keep it that way.”
We’ve said this before, but we here at Save Pottstown!! firmly believe that the neighborhood school system HAS been a disaster for the taxpayers of Pottstown. It’s been a financial money pit for Pottstown taxpayers and a total fallacy promoted only in fictional coffee table books.
Just remember folks, that Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton co-founded Preservation Pottstown with George Wausnock in the early 1980s. Here’s a Historic Preservation Design Guide that the two of them assembled at the time they co-founded Preservation Pottstown. While this isn’t the entire 34-page guide, we’ve included here the front and back covers and Wausnock’s Introduction.
Does any of the text in Wausnock’s Introduction sound familiar? “Pottstown can attract the middle class families so desperately needed.”
It’s almost thirty years later…where o where are those middle class families George? Those middle class families are now in retirement…and have totally bypassed Pottstown.
As everyone knows, Pottstown has five elementary schools in its “neighborhood school system”. These five schools are located mainly on the outside perimeter of town, hardly walkable. According to public records, the total enrollment for the five schools is 1,701. Basic facilities maintenance for Pottstown’s five elementary schools cost Pottstown taxpayers more than $670,000 per year in 2007, 5% of the total school budget.
Let’s take a look at neighboring school districts and their number of elementary schools and enrollment figures:
Pottsgrove School District 3 schools with a combined enrollment of 1,571
Boyertown Area School District 7 schools with a combined enrollment of 3,552
Owen J. Roberts School District 5 schools with a combined enrollment of 2,166
Spring-Ford School District 7 schools with a combined enrollment of 3,121
Daniel Boone School District 2 schools with a combined enrollment of 820
What do these figures tell us? That Pottstown, with its 5 elementary schools and 1,701 student population has the most elementary school buildings with the lowest enrollment when compared to our five neighboring school districts.
Bear in mind while studying these figures that Pottstown is the only area school district designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as a High Tax / High Poverty school district. And we’re supposed to believe that we can afford to support 5 elementary schools??
And while we’re talking about “walkable schools”, let’s talk about how much Pottstown taxpayers are on the hook for busing. The District spends $1.1 million annually busing pupils within its five square mile boundary. If we have, according to Hylton, so many “walkable schools” in Pottstown, why are we spending so much of our taxpayer dollars busing our children??
According to a 2007 newsletter published by the district, about 35% of Pottstown students are bused. Busing is necessary not only to transport children who live too far from their designated school, but also to meet court-mandated diversity regulations, to serve special education needs (more than 18% of our students are special education), and to redistribute students from the densely populated center of town to the five buildings on the perimeter.
Why on earth does Thomas Hylton and his four member Wrecking Crew think that Pottstown’s “neighborhood school system” is worth saving in Pottstown? Explain to us how keeping this antiqued system in place is fiscally responsible?
Add these to the other financial questions that Hylton refuses to answer.
I can’t help but notice that in their little map and plea to add an additional school ALL the school boundries become concentric, EXCEPT Barth…is there any reason for this? It would seem to me, with the HIGHEST enrollment numbers, Barth would be the school that would benefit from having flexibility in shifting students if necessary.
Not that I believe this is a viable plan for this town…remember we have too many employees and our budget is too big and we must embrace fiscal responsibility and if all this is true then how is this plan any better than the Centralized Campus? Answer, it is not. But, if this group was willing to spend money on this I stll don’t quite understand why they felt there was a flaw in the logic of the C.C.???
Just because we have had walkable schools for generations doesn’t mean it is still right for the town. So much has changed in the town, even by their own admission, and what was good for our Grandparents is not good or preferred for our generations; we live here now and we should make choices for ourselves, not living on standards and practices of an old landscape.
I will give them credit…a Central school in the middle of town would be beneficial…but going back to more schools than we have is FINANCIAL SUICIDE!!! It is also hypocritical based on some of the other things they have selectively bashed.
LACKING in all these ideas is a PLAN and I have yet to see or hear a SINGLE word about what benefits, improvements or consideration have been given to EDUCATION. What motive is there when you don’t take the central concept of schools (EDUCATION) into consideration…personal glory, agenda, book royalties…?!?
I don’t care what they want; I don’t care why they are motivated. Public schools are meant to educate; THIS IS WHY SCHOOL BUILDINGS ARE BUILT. Buildings aren’t built to promote walking or anchor a neighborhood, by virtue of being needed and established they may do these things…SECOND to EDUCATION!!!
Stop trying to PRESERVE on our dime, call your friends…remind them of the charitable gifts they can make and Do-It-Yourself (because you love to do it)!! Help us to raise our children and give the gift of a lifetime…they only have 12 – 14 school years and seeing how long you’ve held up educational progress in this town, keep in mind the hundreds of kids who have missed out on a better system and the hundreds who will IF you keep ‘playing this game’.
Keep your money and go to one of those magnificent towns you’ve helped to rebuild, perhaps you’ll be happy there?!? We can’t afford you, our children don’t want to pay your bills AND you’ve yet to show us you care about anything but bricks!! That’s what our kids are going to end up with for brains if you continue to interfere!!
“Walk this way…” don’t let the door hit you in the a*@!
Great info on the elementary schools in nearby districts. SavePottstown, also consider nearby Oley, which has 806 in their elementary school — and all the children are in (are you ready for this?) ONE efficient elementary center building. I called a friend up there who says everyone gets along very well in the school – and they only have to have one gym, one dining/multipurpose room, one office, one nurse’s office, one library, one music room, one heating system to maintain, one roof……etc. (rather than, say, 3 or 4 or 5 of each of these things). Families get to know each other because the elementary school becomes a central meeting place for school events. Sounds very neighborhood-school-like, doesn’t it? Check it out: http://www.oleyvalleysd.org/districtinfo.htm
I think that’s a real community builder…much like the one-room schoolhouse!! Certainly would eliminate some of the problems of maintenance costs while fostering a less segregated town; don’t you think?
Honestly, I like this model much better and, if done right, it’d be the kind of place that erases the need for distribution of diversity among students. Each child attends because they are a resident of the community, plain and simple.
Thanks for the info, silent2long!!
Tom Hylton and George Wausnock’s rationale:
Our kids have always walked to school! We must protect and maintain that!
Ergo…
In the 1940s and 1950s, pregnant women smoked cigarettes and drank alchohol! Must we protect and maintain that, George?
In the 1950s and 1960s, kids rode unrestrained in the back of pick-up trucks! Must we protect and maintain that, Tom?
In the past, we used to isolate mentally-challenged children so the general public could pretend they didn’t exist! Must we… oops… you sorta did suggest we segregate all students with special needs…. Didn’t you, Tom?
It’s hard to believe these men, the sheep who act on their behalf, the voters who elected them, and the wealthy donors who fund them don’t see how utterly ridiculous they are.
Several years ago there was a Superintendent commission council of approx 30 community leaders brought together to discuss what is how to create the most benefit for Pottstown as a community, Pottstown’s taxpayers AND the meet or exceed the educational opportunities for the children. The council met many times, break out sessions were facilitated…a lot of time, effort and thought when into the recommendations. The outcome was that 3 elementary schools made the most sense in all categories.
The School Board tried to bring that council’s vision to fruition last year and was effectively beaten to death by the followers of the “neighborhood schools.”
No matter how many times the Board showed that Pottstown didn’t really operate “neighborhood” schools because of all the busing and distribution of the children; no matter how many times the Board showed that it was the right thing to do educationally for the children (it would really help stop the high number of intra Pottstown moves for the children and provide consistent education throughout the district); and no matter how many times the Board pointed out that it would save the taxpayers’ money by shutting down 2 schools and perhaps, just perhaps getting those properties back on the tax roles; the RED Shirts shut it down. There was no logic to the Red Shirts — just my way or the highway talk (and pretty mean at that). The Red Shirts were played; sold a bill of goods that will cost Pottstown taxpayers a long time and has deprived the children of Pottstown better educational opportunities.
Bitter…you bet I am…
Here are some quotes from the ‘spinmaster’, himself:
Pittsburgh is the greatest place I’ve ever lived, he told the audience.
A city should set a tone for surrounding communities that are self-contained, with schools and libraries and retail services that families can reach without getting in the car. “We’ve abandoned a way of life that has served human beings well for thousands of years,” he said. “Instead of being uplifted, we are degraded just so we can save 50-cents on a pair of socks.”
This isn’t to say that old buildings shouldn’t make way for new plans, he added. After all, the French razed medieval neighborhoods to make room for the Champs Elysees and the Opera. The point is that they traded up for something better, not down for a big box discount store.
Isn’t that what we were trying to do…raze buildings to trade up (Central Campus). Let’s all remember, people, we are DEGRADED because we go ‘bargain hunting’…need I say more?
If Pittsburgh is so great, why not settle there and stop inflicting ‘pain’ here?
Found this on popcitymedia.com.
The key moment in this article to me is from the three pages of the Historic Preservation Design Guide. When Mr. Hylton and Mr. Wausnock state “But the borough does have a future as a residential community” they show how out of touch with reality they actually are. How can you have a town that is only residential? This means that the sole existence of the town will depend on the homeowners (taxpayers) only. They even basically spell this out with their other statements of “Pottstown will never again see the big factories like Firestone and Bethlehem Steel” and “The downtown shopping district cannot hope to gain superiority over the malls”. They gave up and apparently have NO ideas on how to revive the community except to make the houses look more like their original selves. These people are not leaders who actively look for ways to replace the industry and retail that have left Pottstown. Their attitude appears to be that Pottstown can simply be where people who work somewhere else can live. Their Pottstown is simply a very large development with old housing made to look “pretty”. How they think this can work and have the housing remain at a “modest price” is beyond my comprehension. Do the majority of Pottstown citizens want Pottstown to be a giant development?
Over 25 years ago it was said by Borough officials that Pottstown would be a “bed & breakfast” community with people commuting to work. I was told that just prior to the opening of the Route 422 bypass.
That was before Section 8 took over. That was before one fifth of the students were “special needs”. That was before ACE killed what was left of industry.
Back then there were honorable people representing this town.