RADNOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
News Clips
Both postings are on this page: CLICK HERE
Suburban Opinion Oct. 24, 2001: Divisive Reaction. By John Haines.
Main Line Life Opinion Oct. 24, 2001: Criteria For School Site. By Craig Wheeland.
Suburban Oct. 18, 2001: Recognize Their Dedication by John McMeekin II (GOOD ONE!)
Suburban Oct. 18, 2001: Lack Of Party Support Is No Obstacle For Fisher.
(click on title to read the opinion)
October 10, 2001 Suburban Opinion: The Only Logical Conclusion- Richard L. Schwab
October 10, 2001 Suburban Opinion: A Special Place- Gari Brindle
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Thursday, October 11, 2001 |
By Lea Sitton Stanley
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
RADNOR - The school board has narrowly voted to build a new middle school on the current downtown Wayne site, rejecting advice from professionals and pleas from administrators, and prompting a vow from the board president to fight the decision "brick by brick."
In a 5-4 vote early yesterday, the board selected the most costly of three building plans, with a projected price tag of more than $50 million. Because of capital commitments and debt load, it would be 2007 before ground could be broken, School Board Treasurer Alan Brink said, giving foes of the plan time to try to reverse the decision.
Paul Yakulis took up the challenge. Saying that as board president, he had strived to keep his opinions quiet, he announced that he would relinquish the presidency in December.
"If the block of five wants to build it [in Wayne], you won't do it with my leadership; you'll do it with my opposition," Yakulis said, lifting his voice in anger.
"And I'm with him," Vice President Ellen M. Aman said as many in the audience rose, clapping.
The vote trailed years of debate and the review of numerous studies at Wayne and on a district-owned site next to Ithan Elementary School. It topped a five-hour meeting in which residents paraded before the microphone, offering often-heard arguments for one site or the other. Judging by those who spoke and the amount of applause, the pro-Ithan contingent held the majority this night.
"This is a reality check," said Monica Nicosia of Bryn Mawr. "There is no mandate here."
Nicosia and others said they would strike back next month in the voting booth, although most in the field of candidates favor the Wayne site.
Anne A. Albright, who voted against the Wayne plan, and J. Michael Glynn, who voted in favor of it, are not seeking reelection. Incumbents Chase F. Gibson and Dorothy Orlichowski are both in favor of the Wayne site, as are candidates Judith Sherry, Craig Wheeland and John McMeekin 2d. Only candidate Kathy R. Fisher has come out for Ithan.
The plan approved yesterday was one of two that called for demolishing the existing 78-year-old middle school and constructing a four-story building on the 10-acre Wayne site. Known as Scheme A, it calls for a 226,940-square-foot building at the site's south end.
Water is the biggest headache architects and engineers see at the current site. Flooding has plagued the school, which lies at the foot of 180 acres of the Ithan Creek watershed.
Others see the 10-acre site as too small. The Ithan plan was for a three-story building on the 60-acre elementary school property off Clyde Road near Route 320.
But the loudest objections to the Wayne site stemmed from the disruption it will cause. For nearly three years, classes will be run in a construction zone as workers first build the new school, then demolish the old. Administrators, including William Laffey, middle school principal, urged the board to reject the Wayne proposal.
But the board members who voted for Wayne - Gibson, Glynn, Orlichowski, Arthur R. Lewis and Charles Madden 3d - said the inconvenience is worth keeping the school in Wayne.
Lea Sitton Stanley's e-mail address is lstanley@phillynews.com
© Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
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Radnor School Board votes for middle school in Wayne |
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After wrestling with the middle
school issue for more than two years, the Radnor School Board finally voted
on a preference - build it in downtown Wayne. |
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Predictably, the vote was 5-4 with Art Lewis, Dorothy Orlichowski, Charles
Madden, Chase Gibson and J. Michael Glynn being in favor. However, the vote did not assure the school would eventually be built in Wayne. According to the motion, which was made by Lewis, the board voted to pursue a school on the current middle school site with preference to scheme A. Under scheme A, the school would be built along Windmere Avenue. With an estimated cost of more than $51 million, it is the most expensive of the three options considered by the board. However, the district's debt capacity would not be able to handle building scheme A until 2007, with a completion date in 2010. Scheme B, which would feature the school built at the current site along School Lane, was projected to cost $50,433,291. And the option for building at Ithan Elementary was projected at $47.3 million. Debt capacity would allow for the Ithan proposal to be started in 2005. Perhaps the one thing the vote did assure is that future board meetings will include more arguing over the topic. Many audience members who turned out to support moving the school showed anger at the decision, and one wondered aloud if their remarks were even considered. Dave Frankel, a Radnor resident, was the first, but not the last, to ask the board majority why it was disregarding the administration's position on the school site. "I know we have the best school administration," he said. "To a person, they have implored us to not put a school in Wayne." That comment was punctuated by Radnor school Superintendent John DeFlaminis' assertion that the level of disruption children would have to their educations at the Wayne site during construction would be unparalleled in his experience. Most board members read from prepared statements when explaining their rationale. Shortly after the vote was taken, Paul Yakulis said he would not accept another term as board president because he could not represent the majority's wishes. "This is not the legacy I planned on leaving," he said. "I can never be proud of this ill-conceived notion for the middle school." Yakulis added that after his term as president ends in December, he would be able to fully pursue changing the board's direction in regards to the middle school. His remarks, which were made shortly before 1 a.m., were greeted with a standing ovation by a majority of the remaining crowd. Other members of the board minority also displayed displeasure with the vote, including Anne Albright who offered to write recommendations for administrators choosing to leave the district rather than deal with a downtown construction project. With several board members publicly vowing to fight that decision and considering there are three board elections between now and 2007, the issue will surely be revisited several times before then. So to the dismay of some and the pleasure of others, the vote on early Wednesday morning may not bind the district into the Wayne site. |
| ©Main Line Life 2001 |
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Middle school becomes hot real estate |
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| If Radnor Middle School relocates, a private school and intermediate unit are among those interested in leasing the Wayne building |
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June the Radnor school board asked for more information on the middle-school
issue, and that's what they got on Tuesday night. It was the first of two meetings that will primarily focus on board-ordered studies concerning middle-school site issues. Enrollment projections The first study presented to the board concerned a demographics study of the district. Dr. Samuel H. Preston and Dr. Herb Smith, both of the University of Pennsylvania, conducted the demography work using the latest census figures. They also made use of the most current housing figures, including the planned rebuilding of Highland Homes. Preston told the board that the district should expect only modest growth over the next five years and that the student population would peak at that time. He also predicted that student levels would then slowly decline for 15 years after the peak. However, Preston cautioned the board that there is uncertainty with demographic projections. "We cannot project the future with absolute certainty," he said. He warned that the new elementary school could attract more families to the district and that there could always be an unexpected baby boom. Preston did add that such a boom would be unlikely. Another possible cause for concern is that this year the district experienced its highest growth in students in a decade, Preston said. There was no apparent explanation for the growth, he added. Preston did assure the board that five-year demographic projections for schools are normally accurate to within 3 percent because all of the children who will enter the schools during that time have already been born. Birth rates are harder to predict than migration, he said. Even though student population isn't expected to grow rapidly, the middle school is already on the verge of needing to use portable classrooms, said William Laffey, middle school principal. Laffey's comment came in response to board member Anne Albright asking about the school's capacity. Laffey also revealed that there were not enough seats in the cafeteria to accommodate the seventh grade if every student in that level were at school on the same day. There are 264 seventh-graders compared to only 260 cafeteria seats, he said. DCIU in Wayne? In addition to demographics, the board also heard several ideas on how the middle school could be reused if the district builds the new school at another site. The first adaptive reuse dealt with the Delaware County Intermediate Unit's interest in leasing classrooms from the district. Dr. Harry Jamison, executive director of the DCIU, told the board of the intermediate units needs. "We are very interested," he said. "Our predominent interest is classroom space." Jamison said the intermediate unit would want to lease between 25,000 and 30,000 square-feet of the middle-school building, or about one floor of the facility. It would use the space to accommodate 70 to 100 students with special needs, Jamison said. The intermediate unit would lease the space for about $10 per square-foot, he said. Jamison explained the intermediate unit had to lease classroom space because it is not permitted to own any. He added it was not easy to locate space, especially when you are looking for enough to handle 15 classrooms. Jamison also made it clear that the intermediate unit was not trying to influence the board's decision on where to build a new middle school. He said DCIU was only interested in leasing space in the school if the district makes it available. Alan Brink, board treasurer, asked Jamison if the intermediate unit's need for the space would diminish over the next 10 years. Jamison said he expected the need would remain the same. "Our numbers have been stable," he said. "I don't see a big decrease." Private high school Another possible tenant for the middle school would be the Woodlynde School, which is currently in Strafford. John Rogers, Woodlynde director, told the board his school was interested in leasing space in the middle school for a high school. "We have a keen interest in the property," he said. Rogers said Woodlynde currently has 115 high-school students, 21 of that come from Radnor. He added the school would seek to grow to about 160 high school students if it can lease space in the middle school. Woodlynde would want to lease about 25 classrooms and would be willing to work with a delayed lease, Rogers said. He said the middle-school site would offer Woodlynde high-school students more opportunity than their current building, which doesn't have a gymnasium. Students have to be taken to another facility for gymnasium activities, Rogers said. Early childcare center In June, Dr. John DeFlaminis, Radnor superintendent, told the board he thought the current middle school could be converted into a childcare center. On Tuesday, he told the board that he believed an early childcare center would be the best use of the middle school. As an example of how a quality childcare center would be operated, DeFlaminis cited Bright Horizons Family Solutions based out of Watertown, Mass. On hand to explain the Bright Horizons method was Piper Hutin, director of client services for the childcare company. Hutin told the board that her company currently serves over 40,000 families in over 360 locations in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. She said the program is more than just a daycare center in that it educates children and prepares them for kindergarten. The program includes content in language, math, science, environmental awareness and fine arts exploration, Hutin said. Bright Horizons can also provide infant care, which is not as available as care for older children, DeFlaminis said. Hutin said her company could run a center at the middle school and the program there would be tailored to prepare children for entering Radnor schools. If the middle school would become a childcare center, it would free up space at the elementary schools because district kindergarten would be moved to the center, DeFlaminis said. Board member Ellen Aman said she had visited a Bright Horizons center and was very impressed with the program "It really was exceptional," she said. Hutin said her company would ask the district to not charge them rent if they operated a childcare center in the middle school, but admitted it could be negotiated. Financial impact If the district chose to lease out the middle school, it would benefit from generated revenue. However, renovations would have to be made to the building for any of the proposed uses. And the middle-school building could not house a private school, a childcare center and DCIU classes under one roof. So the board was presented with several plans on how the building could be used and the costs/revenues associated with each option. Ronald Street of Northstar Advisors, Ardmore, informed the board of the options. Option one would include leasing part of the school to Woodlynde and using part of it as a childcare center. That option would cost the district about $8 million up front to convert the building, but would generate net revenues of about $13.6 million over 10 years, Street said. The second option would be to lease to Woodlynde and use the remainder of the building for district administration. That option would cost the district about $4 million for conversions and would generate net revenues of about $20.6 million over 10 years, Street said. The next option would lease space to Woodlynde, include a childcare center and accommodate district administration. That option would cost the district more than $8 million for conversions and would result in net revenues of about $16.5 million over 10 years, Street said. Another option would be to lease to Woodlynde and DCIU, while using the remaining space for district administration. That option would cost the district about $5 million for conversions and would generate net revenues of $24.5 million over 10 years, Street said. He later said figures involving DCIU's use of the building would need to be modified since conversion for the intermediate unit's use would be covered by a "fair share" agreement the unit's member districts have. The final option was to lease the entire building to a higher education institution. That option would cost the district about $4.8 million for conversions and would result in net revenues of about $21.2 million over 10 years, Street said. Each of the four schemes involved renting out the entire administration building, which would result in a projected income of $9,946,648 over the next decade. The first and last options included $2.9 million in costs to relocate district administration to another site. Topographical studies Tom Gilbert of Gilbert Architects, Lancaster, told the board that topographic updates of both the current middle-school site and the Ithan location had been completed. He said that nothing surprising was learned through the studies and that the updated information would not affect any of the new school proposals. During the topographical update, board member Art Lewis asked Gilbert to not use a graphic of the current site that included where stormwater collects on the site and the underground stream that runs through it. Lewis said the graphic was prejudicial against the current site. Public comments John McMeekin, school board candidate, said he thought the presentation on reuses of the site was biased. "It's like putting the cart before the horse," McMeekin said. The school board candidate said that the board should be concerned with reuse of the site only if it is decided to build the middle school elsewhere. DeFlaminis took exception to McMeekin's comments and responded. "There was no intent to stack the deck," he said. "We presented what was ready." DeFlaminis explained that many of the other studies ordered by the board would not be ready until the next meeting and that the night's presentations were given because they were completed. During public comment, some people voiced concern that building at Ithan would rob the township of open space. Brink said that he did not think it was a school district's role to preserve open land. He said the state and the township have funds to preserve open spaces. William A. Spingler, Radnor's 3rd Ward commissioner, responded by saying the township would be interested in purchasing land at Ithan or Martha Brown's Woods as ways of preserving open space. Spingler added the township's interest depended on if the district wanted to sell those parcels. One resident asked the board what had happened to other proposed uses for the middle school, including space for a senior center or the Radnor Library. Paul Yakulis, board president, explained that the district had not solicited any offers for the building and that the ideas presented at the meeting were to show there was considerable interest in the school building. "We've demonstrated there is sufficient interest in the space," he said. "It was passive... we didn't market it at all." DeFlaminis expanded on the board president's remarks. "We've also shown there is a positive educational use for it," he said. "Early childhood is not an irrelevant issue." Another resident asked the board if it wasn't forgetting the stormwater issues at the current site. He also voiced an opinion against building a new school there. "Putting a new building on this site is somewhere between folly and incompetence," he said. Other notes Before the presentations started, Yakulis called for a moment of silence to remember those affected by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. A board meeting had originally been scheduled for that day, but was canceled in the wake of the tragedy. To make up for the canceled meeting, another board meeting will be held Monday, Oct. 1. That meeting will include normal board business, but it will be dominated by middle-school presentations, Yakulis said. |
| ©The Suburban & Wayne Times 2001 |
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