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RADNOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
Some letters from residents
Posted June 11, 2001
556 W. Wayne Ave.
Wayne, PA 19087
June 10, 2001
Board of School Directors
Radnor Township School District
137 S. Wayne Ave.
Wayne, PA 19087
MIDDLE SCHOOL DECISION
Dear School Directors,
I want to thank all of the school board members and the administration for
your diligence and hard work in exploring viable options for this important
decision for our schools and our community. Six years ago, as part of the
District's Stakeholders Strategic Planning Committee, I had the privilege of
working on Capital Improvement recommendations and presenting them to the
School Board. Those recommendations addressed long term infrastructure
issues and recommended renovating or building a new middle school, possibly
on a different site, and exploring the building of a 3rd elementary school.
It is very gratifying to me to see that these strategic issues are being
addressed intelligently by a thoughtful board and administration that are
both education-focused and also care about the community.
While there are advantages and disadvantages to the two sites currently
under consideration, both sites provide a great opportunity to create a
lasting and modern physical environment for public education that our
community can be proud of. Many school and community stakeholders have
commented on the drawbacks of each of the site plans presented a few weeks
ago. Through the process of final planning and design, I believe that it is
possible to eliminate or effectively manage many of these deficiencies to
meet the key goals and values of Radnor's public education and our
community.
I realize that each of you probably have reached your own conclusions
already and the vote needs to be taken so that district can proceed with the
next steps based on the majority decision. However, I do think that the
Board should continue to consider constructive suggestions from the public
regarding the final design on the Board's selected site for the new middle
school. I would like to offer the following suggestions to improve the site
designs at both locations for your consideration.
Wayne Site
* Eliminate Site Plan B from consideration because Site Plan A is much
better with respect to circulation of vehicles and people,
distance/elevation from the storm water flow, flexibility in design,
aesthetics and other factors. The major benefit of Plan B that should be
incorporated into a modified Plan A (Plan A+) is to move the district
administrative offices away from this site, thus reducing the parking needs
and allowing for a less compact floor plan.
* Improve Site Plan A by:
a. Moving the district administration's offices and maintenance facility to
another location,
b. Reconfiguring the floor plan to get windows for most or all regular
classrooms, e.g. relocate the library, chorus and foreign language to the
ground or upper floor of administration wing, thus permitting the architects
to separate the classroom pods on the floor plan, perhaps putting one pod
where the library was and two pods instead of three along Windemere Ave.
incorporating outside walls with windows between the pods,
c. Reconfiguring the playing field and hard space areas to get more flexible
use of the outside area for both school and community use, and
d. Keeping the Sulpizio gym for both the overflow of school activities and
for community use. This separate building is very valuable to the community
and its community use could be greatly expanded. Indoor recreation space
has been in high demand for at least 10 years and I know the Township would
provide support to maintain and manage this building for community
recreation as well as school activities.
* Explore various alternatives for students during the construction phases
such as:
a. Retaining the modular classrooms at Wayne and Ithan,
b. Housing the 6th grade at the 2 elementary schools for part or all of the
3 years of construction,
c. Creating outdoor recess spaces during construction, such as the middle
school's tennis courts.
Ithan Site
* Connect the drives for the 2 schools to allow for better circulation and
improved emergency access,
* Consider designing a future additional drive onto the site, possibly from
Haymarket Lane, that could be added if traffic problems become severe, and
* Consider other alternatives to Roberts Road for an entrance off of Sproul
Road.
I hope that these suggestions are helpful to the school district and I would
be very happy to discuss these ideas further and to assist in the final
planning and design process.
I hope that the different viewpoints and personal assessments among board
members, administration, parents, community members and others will not
perpetuate polarity. A close vote is certainly part of a healthy democratic
process and in this case we should recognize that the different views are
all striving what is best for the future of public education and community
values.
Respectfully,
Robert Miccolis
Bob submitted a revision to PLAN A, Downtown Site: Click "HERE" to see his revision. Thanks Bob
To: rrichards@waynesuburban.com
>From: "Margaret W. Ralph" <mralph@sas.upenn.edu>
>Subject: Location of Radnor Middle School
>
>I am writing to strongly support keeping the Radnor Middle School in the
>center of Wayne. The school has for as long as it has been there, sent
>well-educated and well-prepared students on to Radnor High School. In a
>recent survey, old RMS was rated as 9th in the state, well ahead of the
>newly renovated high school. Both architects agreed that the educational
>specs could be fully met on the present site.So why move the school? Fields?
>Parents, students and alumni have all stated keeping the school in town
>matters more to them than 20 acres of fields. Water? The commissioners have
>all stated that they support keeping the school in Wayne and will work with
>the school board to solve the problem. Revenue enhancement? Have any of the
>proponents of this approach run by the public their plan for a 350 car
>parking garage in the center of Wayne, as well as 40 offices? A strong need
>for a community center? George Metzger has designed a building which can be
>a school by day and a community center by night.
> Why keep the school in Wayne? Again, parents, students, neighbors and
>alumni have spoken out on this question: give young people a sense of
>community--of being part of something organic and interlinked; ability to
>walk to Wayne after school; a school students can walk to from home;
>curriculum advantages of having a town right there for learning; avoiding
>the strip mall feeling of so many of the towns where there is no discernible
>center; the library right across the street; the life and vibrancy having
>young people in our town brings to the community. The final reason for
>keeping the school in Wayne is that there is no better site, and no site
>where the neighbors are inviting the school to come. Ithan? Four years ago
>when those of us opposed to the Petersen site proposed the Ithan site, we
>were told that it was a terrible site: slopes too steep, not enough
>buildable land, terrible traffic compared to King of Prussia Road. terrible
>delays were envisioned on snowy days, and we were even told by the
>Superintendant that there was the danger of a sniper because of the wooded
>nature of the site. Is it possible that the call for Ithan is merely a
>delaying tactic while some continue to pursue the siren song of Ardrossan?
>I don't know. But I do know that we owe a debt of gratitude to the five
>stalwart members of the school board who, having decided that the site in
>Wayne will not get in the way of a superior educational experience for the
>students, are supporting the community on this issue and have now decided
>the delaying has gone on long enough. It is time to vote, and then build a
>great school in Wayne.
> Thank you for the opportunity your paper is providing for the
>citizens to be heard on this crucial issue.
>
Margaret Walton Ralph> 430 Belrose Lane
> Radnor
Dear Mr..Gorson,Would you allow your letter to appear on the citizens web site? If so, please reply, give your approval and I will post it. If you do not want it posted I will respect your wishes.ThanksTim Dilworth=================Yes you may post it.Thanks,Murray=================
Dear Ithan Parent:
I obtained your e-mail address from the e-mail sent to me from the group promoting keeping the Radnor Middle School at the current site. There are currently 5 (out of 9) school board members who appear to want the school at the current site no matter the cost or alternatives. If you want the school that is right for our children, please contact the school board or local papers. ( www.waynesuburban.com or www.mainlinelife.com )Do you know:1) The School Board is planning to vote on the site at the June 12th meeting!2) There is still serious question as to whether the planned storm system will be able to handle enough storm water to meet the township requirements!3) The Wayne site will include between 18 and 20 windowless classrooms!4) The middle school students will loose between 33% and 50% of the currently inadequate athletic fields if the board accepts the Wayne site!5) The Wayne site will have inadequate parking and depending on which plan, a bus loop too small to handle the buses!6) The township will be paying for a large portion of the storm water management costs, not the school system. Guess who really gets to pay for it!7) Due to the wetness caused by Storm water in the current building, the school has had illnesses caused by the molds, etc. I believe the school even closed for a week in a previous year. Will that be solved?8) Current Middle School students will be disrupted for 2.5 to 3.5 years during the construction phase. In addition to the classroom disruptions, they may lose their gym and athletic fields for the entire construction process.9) I know very little about storm water retention; however, what little I know is that water finds its own path and is unpredictable. So what you solve today may not work for tomorrow.10) After the presentation, board President Paul Yakulis asked Uhlmer if he would build a school on the site.
"Personally, no," Uhlmer responded. [Quoted from the Main Line Life October 26, 2000 article "Radnor Board Bucks Opinion, Orders Design for New Wayne School] [Ross Uhlmer is the representative from Pennoni Engineering, the firm the township hired to suggest possible storm water solutions at the middle school site]11) [Paul Yakulis asked the same question to Tom Gilbert] "It depends on the quality of life and the total program you want to achieve," Gilbert said. "Can we build a building to meet the educational program? Yes. But what are the trade-offs? With enough money you can build anything. If it were solely up to me to pick a site, I would look elsewhere." [Quoted from the Main Line Life October 26, 2000 article "Radnor Board Bucks Opinion, Orders Design for New Wayne School] [Tom Gilbert of Gilbert Architects, the Lancaster-based firm that was retained by the school district to design the project]
12) The Ithan PTA [ Lisa Webber, PTA Vice President] sent a petition to the School Board in October of 2000 asking the Board to have the Radnor Middle School built on a different and larger property. It's time to move forward," Webber said. "We should provide the best academic environment for our children."
Webber said the site would not allow for further expansion of the school if enrollment would increase and she mentioned that having athletic fields at the school was essential. It has been discussed at prior board meetings that if a school is built at the current middle-school site, children would have to be bused to athletic fields elsewhere in the district. When Webber finished speaking, most of the nearly 40 people in attendance gave her a round of applause. [From the October 26th edition of the Suburban Wayne Times - Radnor Middle School plan draws protest]
13) There are currently plans to build the school at the Ithan site. It would meet all the educational requirements. It would include creating additional athletic fields. ALL CLASSROOMS WOULD HAVE WINDOWS. The entrance would be on route 320 so it would not bring traffic onto Clyde road or the Ithan Mills area. Sections of the school could be closed when the population in that age group diminishes, creating more efficiencies. THERE IS ROOM FOR EXPANSION if the population should grow or the State mandates more programs.I have not been able to understand the motivation of some of our school board members and the people running the "Keep the School in Wayne" site. They have been very organized and well run, but I always question the motivations of people who do not even want to know what the alternatives are? Do they want the site in Wayne because it is the best solution for our children or why?The School Board representatives who wish to keep the school in Wayne talk about community and the need to teach our children how to use and budget money. Wayne gives them the opportunity to go to stores on their own. As a parent, I do not want my 12 year old hanging around Wayne on her own. I would like to see her in well organized and supervised activities. Keeping the school in Wayne is a high price for the ability for the kids to go and buy pizza.The group who wants to keep the site in Wayne has put together a very informative web site. www.angelfire.com/pa4/rms On this site, you will be able to find the plans for keeping the middle school in Wayne and also moving it to Ithan. Additionally, there is an e-mail link to the school board members. LOOK at the PLANS and the COSTS. MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND! and LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD! Make sure the school board does what is best for the children and the taxpayersSincerely,Murray Gorson, Radnor Township Parent=======================
NOTE FROM THE CITIZENS WEB SITE & MASSIVE E-MAIL LIST: The e-mail above was sent to residents using an old e-mail list taken from us. We mailed the note below to those receiving e-mail from our list. WE ALWAYS REMOVE ADDRESSES IF REQUESTED!
Once again we find that someone has taken it upon themselves to use our
mailing list. Again, our apologies and assurances that we have given our
list to nobody nor have we had anyone ask to use our list. Try as we might I
guess we will be faced with this from time to time. We do appreciate the
email being forwarded to us since we have not been included in this use of
our list.
Again, our apologies.
To the Editor:
I am writing to express my strong opinion that Radnor Middle School should
remain in the center of Wayne. The present location permits our children
to
spend their formative middle school years right in the middle of their
"home
town" just as they begin to show some maturity and independence. They
won't
be able to walk down the street to the pizza shop, get a haircut by
themselves, or stop at the sporting goods store if the middle school is out
at the Ithan site. I grew up in a very close knit community in South
Philadelphia, and in looking back, our "shopping district" was a lot
like the
center of Wayne. The shop owners and the kids knew each other, and there
was
a mutual respect and pride in our neighborhood. When my parents said I was
old enough to stop at the pizza shop on the way home from school with my
friends, it was truly a rite of passage for me. I felt empowered,
"mature",
and worthy of their trust. Let's not take away this wonderful experience
for
generations of future middle school students here in Radnor Township. Keep
the school in the center of Wayne!
Sincerely,
George J. Badey III
238 Chamounix Road
St. Davids
Received from PTO. Chris Kingsbery.
Hello All,
I thought you might be interested in the school board minutes for May since
we won't be having a meeting this month. These are what will be published in
the June PYO Post at Ithan.
Have a great summer. Iook forward to working with all of you next year.
Chris
School Board Minutes 5/22/01
The student reports were given from RHS and Wayne Elementary School.
The presentation was focused on the new RMS building. There was a
presentation from Gilbert Architects and HMFH Architects. The architects
presented three plans for a new RMS building, two on the current site and one
on Ithan.
Each of the three plans was presented: All meet Educational Specifications
and all will cost approximately $44,000,000. All of the buildings are
approximately the same size. Two of the three options will have significant
program interruptions associated with them.
Plan A: Incorporates the Administration Building in its plan and will be
located along Windemere. This plan requires the Watershed portion of the RMS
building be demolished early in the process to facilitate construction. The
plan will take 2.5-3 years. This building would have approximately 20
windowless classrooms and four stories. The proposed bus loop for this plan
could not stack all the busses needed for RMS. There is a little flexibility
for expansion in this plan. The ground floor of the administration building
has not been allocated in this plan and may be available for expansion
purposes assuming the administration can fit into a smaller space than they
have now. They currently occupy 1½ floors of the building and the plan has
them housed on 1 floor.
Plan B: The gym is lost immediately in this plan. The building would take
three plus years to finish, and construction would have to be a two-phase
process. The last portion of the new building to be built would be the
auditorium. This building would have approximately 18 windowless classrooms
and four stories. Access to this building is on School Lane. The proposed bus
loop for this plan could stack all the busses. There is no flexibility for
expansion in this plan. The architects felt there was more disruption
associated with this plan.
Plan C: Is located at Ithan in the back corner of the property. The building
would not have any impact on middle school program delivery because of its
location. The plan includes a three-story building that could be added onto
in the future. The building is stacked so that access can be segmented off as
needed. All the classrooms are day-lit. This project would take 2 years to
complete.
There will be more discussion and a vote on June 12.
Questions about the budget were addressed.
Wayne has had class size reduction in third grade for the past couple of
years. The cost to bring that to Ithan would be $94,208 exclusive of benefits.
Enrollment has risen by 150 students and teaching positions have increased by
9.3 positions.
5 teacher retirements yielded the district $140,672.
There is a health aide at RES because the state mandates one nurse for 1500
students.
Advocates for a new track at RHS stayed until the very end to express their
views.
Hello School Board and Candidates,
It is ONE WEEK away from the next School Board meeting and the final VOTE for the Radnor Middle School site. Five board members have supported the present Middle School site in Downtown Wayne for TWENTY months. Four board members have favored other locations for TWENTY months. Both sides have access to the same information, the same conceptual plans and construction budgets, read the same news papers, read the massive e-mail's, view the web site, see the interviews on public TV, know the results of the primary election. Yet the board still disagrees, and that is ok!
To The Five: You have stood together for TWENTY months. The Radnor Citizens overwhelmingly support keeping the Radnor Middle School in Downtown Wayne, this has not changed. The Architects have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a new Middle School can be built on the Downtown site and that the site will: A. Meet the educational program. B. Be close to an alternate site's cost. C. Provide the educational needs of OUR children. D. Keep our ONLY community based school.
After studying the Downtown Wayne Plans and the Ithan Plans (available on the citizens web site) I do not see the benefit to re-locate the Middle School.
To The Four: You have stood together for TWENTY months. For that I respect you. You have asked the hard questions, commissioned the best Architects to study sites and debated graciously with the Five. My only question to you is, will you work together if the Five vote to build the new Radnor Middle School in Downtown Wayne? If the answer is yes, then please tell the Five and lets come together as a board a community as neighbors as parents as tax payers and build a new Middle School.
To The NINE: I have lived in Radnor since I was six years old. I went to Rosemont Elementary, Radnor Middle School (first sixth grade class), and Radnor High School. I chose to live in Radnor as an adult because it is my home. Since becoming involved with the Radnor Middle School issue I have met lots of new people, re-kindled friendships with old friends, communicated with Radnor Alumni, learned about Radnor politics and worked with some really great people. I respect the School Board and praise your hard work, long hours and dedication to our schools and community. I appreciate the support that I have received from most of the members and understand why others may not enjoy my actions. My goal all along was to provide information to the citizens of Radnor and to let them make their own decision using all the available information. I hope that we can move on after the vote on Tuesday and do something good for the community of Radnor: GET ALONG WITH EACH OTHER!
Thank You
Tim Dilworth
269 Berwind Road
Radnor, Penna. 19087
Received from Alan Brink, School Director:
Dear Mr. McCone,
Tim Dilworth forwarded me a copy of your letter to the Suburban with
the attached spread sheet. I could not duplicate your fixed cost
calculation. Does it included a factor for underground stormwater
retention, which would have a capital cost of $3.5 million, which alone
would increase the annual cost for the $250,000 homwowner by about $20 for
each of the next 30 years? It would be helpful if you could explain your
fixed cost calculation.
Very truly yours,
Alan Brink
Tim:
I wanted to thank you for providing a forum to discuss the middle school
issue. I also think the criteria you and Carter developed to decide which
candidates to support helped me in both primaries. I hope you will continue
to keep the web site running and I will certainly make information available
to you. I dod not have Carter's email so I'd appreciate it if you could
forward this email to him.
Thanks,
Craig Wheeland
