PASD Administration on the Move, Cupola Woes

With wrangling over the 2011-2012 , Thursday’s Phoenixville Area School District board workshop meeting had an agenda of mostly routine items.

The district administrative staff will move into its new building at 1120 South Gay St. on Fri., June 24. They will be holding a cash-and-carry sale of surplus furniture and other items on June 28 and 29 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The items will be located at the old administration building and at the annex at building 7 on the Valley Forge Christian College campus.

Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley said the Phoenixville Public Library requested a first look at the items before they go on sale to the public to see if anything could be used by the library.

Fegley suggested that the library be allowed the come in a half hour before the sale starts to see if there is anything they want. He also suggested extending the offer to other non-profit agencies, and the board agreed.

“That would be a great gesture from the administration to the community,” said Board President Paul Slaninka.

The board also discussed the ongoing project at the site of the former Schuylkill Elementary School. The plan is to build a parking lot with 26 parking spaces and eventually renovate the monument and the cupola on the property.

Operations director Stanley Johnson explained that the district received bids to renovate the monument and cupola but that the costs were too high. Johnson said there are also concerns about the cupola’s fragility.

“We can’t move it [the cupola],” he said. “It might just fall apart.”

Johnson also updated the board on the project to resurface the high school track. The track will be patched next week, the new surface will be sprayed on it on June 27, and the track will reopen for public use on July 5.

Fegley addressed rumors that the turf field will have to be completely torn up and replaced.

“Those rumors are completely false,” he said. “We have a few expected ‘punch list’ items, such as checking the seams and painting some hash marks for other sports.”

Otherwise, he said, the field is in great condition.

The curriculum committee approved plans to restore a world languages program in first through fifth grades, start a virtual academy in the district so that district students who use cyber-school programs could take classes through PASD and create a preschool program that would also allow high school students interested in preschool education to get experience with children.

Slaninka commended Fegley and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Regina Palubinsky for getting these programs off the ground.

In other news:

• Phoenixville Area High School will have a Rotary Club exchange student, a senior, from France next year.
• PASD has teamed with Delaware Valley Community College to offer a three-credit Introduction to Teaching class for students in the teaching academy. The class will allow students to earn college credit.
• The legislative council is watching the progress of several House and Senate bills, including two House bills (HB-1369 and HB-1640) that will outlaw teacher strikes and change collective bargaining rules for the state.
• The district administration and the Phoenixville Community Education Foundation will be pursuing several joint projects over the next school year, including grants to build up the science, robotics, art and music programs, promote literacy and develop relationships with colleges so that counselors can recommend students directly to colleges and universities.
• The district is also developing a program to allow senior citizens to volunteer in schools in return for tax credits. Owen J. Roberts has a similar program.
• The next board meeting will be June 23, and then the board will break for the summer and reconvene in August.