Not the South Fayette of old: Continual growth forces changes
As many school districts throughout Allegheny County continue to experience decreases in enrollment, South Fayette Township is doing the opposite.
Former farmland and vacated industrial sites have attracted developers of large, modern homes in sprawling subdivisions, turning an area formerly known for its fields and openness into a bustling suburb of continual growth.
And it shows no signs of letting up, as plans for a development called Hastings on the former Mayview State Hospital site will attest. The preliminary master plan, as approved by township commissioners in August, shows the eventual addition of up to 572 residential units.
That pretty much has been the ongoing theme for the school district, which has embarked on a series of expansion and improvement projects to meet the demands of growing enrollment.
The two major projects on the South Fayette campus, costing just under $60 million, are construction of the new intermediate school to house third- through fifth-grade students, eliminating the need for modular units, and expansion of the high school.
“We are in our fourth year of operation in the intermediate building, and it already has about 800 students in it,” Superintendent Billie Rondinellis said. “We absolutely had to do it.”
As for the high school, the expansion, which is expected to wrap up by August, will allow for some semblance of space for even larger classes of students that are on the way.
“Things start to get tight,” said Rondinelli. “As the next classes come up, which are those in the middle school knocking at the door right now, it would have been difficult to accommodate those groups.”
The high school building, constructed to fit approximately 800 students, now is accommodating 810 in ninth through 12th grades. If class sizes of younger students remain the same over the next nine years, when the current kindergarteners through third-graders are of high-school age, 953 students would be in the building.
The expansion would allow for up to 1,200 students in the high school, but even that number could be eclipsed if more famiies continue to move into the townshp.
“As we get more students coming in at different trajectories, those students also need different support systems,” Rondinelli explained. “The combination of having early interventions in the district and providing support throughout their grade levels is something that strongly relates to our academic success.”
But the district isn’t just growing. It’s booming.
A few years ago, the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials acknowledged South Fayette as the fastest-growing district in the state by percentage. Its enrollment jumped from 1,982 in 2005-06 to 3,104 this school year, representing a 56.6 percent increase in a dozen years.
“It just continues to go up,” said Brian Tony, district director of finance. “Everybody that I’ve talked to has either leveled off or decreased students. Nobody is really increasing.”
Rondinelli said she believes that the increase has to do not only do with the district’s examplary facilities on campus but what happens inside those facilities.
“While we have an increase in the number of students, our academics have continued to increase, as well,” she said. “It’s a little bit of a phenomenon that we are able to maintain our curricular academic programs. We have people come into the township and say that they are coming strictly for the district. I think that we really work to personalize everything for our students.”
The district has separated itself from the pack in innovative technology through its STEAM-related concepts. It is involved with the Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools and Remake Learning. The district also gives each student in third through 12th grades an HP Revolve Laptop for learning. First- and second- graders also benefit from the perks of the district’s technology trend, receiving iPads.
“We’re working very hard to not have expenditures that are considered unnecessary,” said Rondinelli. “We’re trying to provide the best education as a public school district that is possible for all children. We have those increased costs along the way.”
Since 2001-02, those costs as reflected by the budget have risen from $18.84 million to $52,748,922 this year. The real estate tax rate has also climbed to become the one of the highest within Allegheny County, at 26.7 mills, with increases in each of the past four years.
The district’s per-pupil expenditures doremain competitive with other local districts.
Rondinelli attributes salaries, benefits, transportation, updating facilities and South Fayette’s own transportation service and food service departments as reasons for the increase. Paying more into the school pension system is also a reason for the heightened costs.
“We have increased mandates, students that require special education, facilities that need to be maintained and debt services,” she said. “We are trying to accommodate every family that comes in. Everything falls on the local taxpayer, and we sympathize with that, but we have students that we have to serve. We’re kind of between a rock and a hard spot.”