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South Fayette schools prepare for increased enrollment

By Jacob Calvin Meyer staff Writer jmeyer@thealmanac.Net 4 min read
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Leaders from each of South Fayette’s four schools asked the district’s school board to boost their operating budgets and increase the number of teachers due to growing enrollment.

Director of Finance Brian Tony said during the board’s Feb. 27 meeting the four schools requested a total of 17 new teachers for the 2018-19 school year.

Kristin Deichler, middle school principal, said her school’s largest fiscal increase is a direct correlation to the increase of students in the district.

“The largest area is within the capital equipment to be able to prepare to handle the number of students moving into the middle school,” Deichler said. “We’re calling for additional cafeteria tables, additional student chairs and desks for classrooms. The bulk of it is for those furniture items.”

Deichler said enrollment at the middle school is at 800 students and is projected to be at 853 next year and around 900 for the 2019-20 school year. She said the school has the “flexibility” to hold 900 students if the school is “creative” about it.

“If there are no significant changes over the next two years, we would still be able to fit in there,” she said. “If there are significant (increases) within the next two years – if the projections aren’t close and we’re really gaining more students – it’s going to be tight.”

Augmenting enrollment obviously isn’t only a problem at the middle school, as the other South Fayette schools have been managing the increases for more than a decade. The district recently added in an Intermediate School and completed a renovation on its high school, and the 2017-18 enrollment of around 3,300 students is a record for the district. The current enrollment is 65 percent higher than the just less than 2,000 students in the district in 2005-06.

In other budgetary concerns, high school Principal Aaron Skrbin said the largest increase in the high school’s budget was a nearly $10,500 increase in the science department.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, township resident Maroon David raised concern about school safety in lieu of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

“I’m here because I’m a parent of two kids in the school district, one in high school and one in middle school, and I’m very concerned about recent events in schools,” David said. “We’re coming upon a time period where we can’t say much about political debates anymore and we have a health crisis in our schools. Parkland shooting, as tragic as it was, might just be the beginning of worse to come.”

David urged the board to be “on the right side of history” when it comes to school safety.

“I’m here to ask you to take another look at security and safety measures in our schools. I’m here to ask you to consider new ideas,” he said. “In the ways that you lead in so many ways in this district, it’s why I moved my children here, please be leaders in school safety and identifying mental health issues with our students and supporting them that way. You already do a great job, but there’s a lot more to do.”

“We are always reviewing school safety policies,” said Alan Vezzi, board president, after the meeting. “In light of what’s going on, we are looking at how we do things here at the district.”

Also during the meeting:

  • Steve Niedenberger, from Hosack, Specht, Muetzel & Wood, LLP, discussed the 2016-17 audit with the board. Niedenberger mentioned a “great deal” of the $23.8 million general fund balance “is committed for future needs of the district.”
  • Joe Brennan, PJ Dick construction manager, presented to the board, as he has for the past four months, about the remaining punch list items for the high school renovation project. The remaining change orders, of which Brennan said there are less than 10, include electrical connections, doors and signage.
  • The board appointed board member Leonard Fornella to the Allegheny Intermediate Unit Board of Directors for a three-year term.
  • The board announced that the start time for future board meetings will be 7:30 p.m.

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