Nearly one month after the Pottsville Area School District and the Saint Clair Area School District unveiled a lengthy, and costly, study to determine ways to merge the two districts, the Pottsville Area school board Wednesday voted not to pursue such a merger.
“I think based on the comments tonight, and what I’ve heard out there, I would move that the board does not pursue the merger at this time. And I would put that in the form of a motion,” Scott D. Krater, the vice president of the Pottsville Area school board, said at that board’s March meeting.
“I would second that,” said Pottsville Area school board Member Charles R. Wagner, who was out of town but attended the meeting through an audio/video hookup.
“There are a number of issues out there that we’ve considered, and not only through the feasibility study. There’s the PSERS issue that’s currently in legislation which continues to not get resolved,” Pottsville Area school board President John F. Boran said. PSERS is the Public School Employees’ Retirement System.
“It boils down to finances in general. The debt is certainly a concern,” Jeffrey S. Zwiebel, Pottsville Area superintendent, said, referring to the prospect of shouldering Saint Clair Area’s outstanding debt of more than $12,520,000.
“Saint Clair, as we know, is still waiting on their Planning and Construction reimbursement (from the state). That does not seem to get resolved. So I think until some of these issues work their way through the legislation with the legislators who Governor Wolf seems to be, hopefully, heading up, some of this change will come about,” Boran said.
Two members of the Saint Clair Area school board witnessed the vote at the Howard S. Fernsler Academic Center on Wednesday night: Michael Holobetz, the board’s president, and Jeanette Zembas, the board’s vice president.
“I’m disappointed and surprised that Pottsville took action so quickly. I thought we were just beginning the dialog on the merger study and the merger options with our communities. We are interested in continuing to pursue keeping our high school students at Pottsville Area,” Holobetz said after the meeting.
At the end of the 2014-15 school year, Saint Clair Area will start talks to renew its tuition contract with Pottsville Area to educate the Saint Clair Area students in grades 9 through 12. It’s a contract Saint Clair Area has had with Pottsville Area since Saint Clair Area’s high school closed in 1989.
“It was a self-renewing contract, but with the consideration of a merger, we had to give a one-year notice to terminate and we gave that notice at the end of last school year,” Holobetz said.
Zembas had no comment after Wednesday night’s meeting and referred all questions to Holobetz.
Last year, these neighboring school districts announced they were considering a merger, that Civic Research Alliance, Mechanicsburg, was conducting a feasibility study.
On Feb. 20, the districts, via their websites, unveiled the 177-page study and sought comments from the public. It offered two merging options.
• Option 1: Pottsville Area would take over the operations of Saint Clair Area’s only school building, the Saint Clair Area Elementary/Middle School, and Saint Clair Area School District would cease to exist.
• Option 2: Saint Clair Area would lease its school building to Pottsville Area and pay tuition to have Pottsville Area educate its 590 students.
The study cost $39,500. So far, the state Department of Education has agreed to pay half.
On March 9, before a crowd of 400 people at a public meeting on the study at Pottsville Area’s D.H.H. Lengel Middle School, Boran said Pottsville Area will be paying the other $19,750.
As of Wednesday, Pottsville Area is still trying to figure out how to cover the cost, according to Stephen C. Curran, Pottsville Area business manager.
On March 11, Pottsville Area board member Karen E. Rismiller requested more information about Option 2.
“Have we received any further information from Civic Research Alliance regarding Option 2?” Rismiller asked Wednesday night.
“Not as of today,” Curran said.
“How about the numbers on the website? Any additional comments?” Krater asked.
“I received about six more comments,” Zwiebel said.
When asked how many comments the district received total since Feb. 20, Zwiebel said he did not have an accurate count Wednesday night.
“And what were those? How were they?” Krater asked.
“Mostly not in favor,” Zwiebel said.
At the start of Wednesday night’s meeting, two citizens from Pottsville — Jerry Pritchett and Chris Kelly — told the Pottsville Area school district not to merge with Saint Clair Area.
“I have a little bit of an issue with the amount of debt that would be brought on to Pottsville,” Kelly, a 1986 graduate of Pottsville Area, said.
Kelly was also concerned about the future of the tax base in the Saint Clair Area school district.
“My viewpoint at the moment would be Option 2 if anything. But I really don’t want to see any merger at this time,” Kelly said.
“What’s in this for the Pottsville Area School District?” Pritchett asked the board. Then he provided one answer: “Lots and lots of debt. I don’t think that bodes well for Pottsville.”
“Not only the comments that came in through the website, but out in the general public, we’ve all heard it, very loud and clear. And we take our responsibility seriously. I’m only one of nine, but the other eight, I feel, that they also are here for the right reasons,” Boran said.
“Everything that I’ve heard is the same, that as of right now most people are telling me that they are not in favor of it, that all the things that they’re hearing coming out of Harrisburg, all the things that they’re hearing just from their neighbors, there is concern and they feel to move on this right now would not be a fiscally responsible thing to do. In a year or two, it may be resolved to the point that it would be a much more agreeable thing,” Pottsville Area board Member Patrick F. Moran said.
“We’re responsible for somebody else’s money and we all take our duty very seriously. Saint Clair is an important fabric of our high school and we certainly hope that continues. But at this time, financially, we need to make sure our financial house is in order and give Saint Clair the opportunity to put their financial house in order. Is it something that we can revisit in the future? The answer is yes. But at this point, it’s not in our taxpayers best interest,” Rismiller said.
“With my extensive talking with the public, especially going through my petition in running for reelection, the input I’ve gotten unanimously from the taxpayers in the Pottsville Area is it’s not the right time for this merger. And I still want to, hopefully, maintain and evolve our relationship with Saint Clair, but a merger at this time is not in my interest. I am against it at this time,” Pottsville Area school board Member Gary A. Cortese said.
Krater asked for a roll call vote on his motion. Those who said no to a merger with Saint Clair Area were: Boran, Krater, Wagner, Cortese, Moran, Rismiller, Christina M. DiCello and Linda Grube.
Pottsville Area school board Member Cindy Petchulis — who was also out of town but attended the meeting via a loudspeaker — abstained, being the sister-in-law of Jason Bendle, principal and acting superintendent at Saint Clair Area.
Krater and Boran said they look forward to meeting with Saint Clair Area officials to talk about renewing the tuition agreement with Saint Clair Area’s high school students.
“We need to continue talks because we strongly want to continue the relationship with the high school students and Pottsville with Saint Clair,” Krater said.
“We want a multi-year agreement with Saint Clair. We don’t want those students’ educations in a upheaval. We want continuity for them. So we want to continue the relationship at the 9 through 12 grade levels. I think that’s important. I also think it’s important how these conversations started over curriculum. I think that has to continue,” Boran said.
“Absolutely,” Zwiebel said.
Pottsville Area’s and Saint Clair Area’s elementary/middle school education programs “almost have to mirror each other,” Boran said, “because when they get to the 9th grade level and it all becomes one, they should have similar foundations.”
“We’ve made a lot of strides this year as far as curriculum, working with Mr. Bendle and Mrs. Ziegmont,” Zwiebel said, referring to Stephanie R. Ziegmont, Pottsville Area’s director of curriculum and instruction. “And certainly we hope to continue that. It’s only for the betterment of the students in the end.”
“We have to give the new administration in Harrisburg time. Governor Tom Wolf just unveiled a very aggressive education budget unlike anything we’ve seen in quite a few years. Hopefully, down the road, as he gets the school funding issue straightened out, hopefully we can come back and visit this issue,” Zwiebel said.
Wolf visited Pottsville Area on Feb. 12 to promote his proposal, which includes a 5 percent severance tax on natural gas extraction, plus 4.7 cents per thousand feet of volume on extraction. It’s expected to generate over a billion dollars in fiscal year 2017 prior to exemptions.