Letters to the Editor for November 18

Here are today’s Letters to the Editors…

Submitted by Neshaminy Graduate and Levittown resident Ronald Rudy Jr.:

I’ve previously eschewed school-board politicking, leaving those duties to my father of the same name – a member of Neshaminy’s school board – who fights to balance the needs of cost control and quality education. However, with two young boys who will soon be able to attend Neshaminy schools, I can no longer sit on the sidelines.

Six members of the Neshaminy School board recently voted to move 5th grade to middle school, a move broadly unpopular with the people, and unsupported by current educational theory. These same members are now on the cusp of forcing through the construction of an equally unpopular $30 million “super-sized” 900-student elementary school. A school that will be physically located a long rush-hour bus ride away from many of the students it would service.

We can no longer have confidence that these six members of the school board are acting in the best interests of Neshaminy students and taxpayers.

Transitioning from elementary to middle school is recognized as being very disruptive to the educational process. Students universally perform poorer in the year following the transition to middle school. Moving this transition up another year, after having already pushed 6th graders into middle school, exacerbates this disruption to the detriment of the learning process.

The district’s own “5-8 Study Work Group Interim Report” confirms this, stating “negative transition effects on academic achievement, attendance, and behavior seem to be correlated to students’ age at the transition to middle school, with significantly greater negative effects when the transition is at Grade 5 than Grade 6, and at Grade 6 than Grade 7”. This same report comes to the contradictory recommendation of moving these 11-year-olds into the middle schools.

Neighboring Council Rock maintains a high level of education while preserving a K-6 elementary, 7-8 middle and 9-12 high school configuration. Meanwhile, Neshaminy has felt compelled to herd its student body around with ever-changing configurations due to projections, with 9th graders moved to the high school 8 years ago and 6th graders moved to the middle schools about 10 years before that. These, in my opinion, are gross overreactions to projections that by their very nature change.

But what strikes me most about the interim report is what wasn’t asked: is a K-4, 5-8, 9-12 configuration what is best for our students? The report could be summarized as “we’ve identified that putting 5th graders into middle school is probably going to have negative effects, but we haven’t found any specific studies that state a 5-8 configuration is bad we’re just going to go ahead and do it anyway.”

The response from the district to criticisms posted November 6th confirms this by asserting “none of the research studies cited examined the issue of the impact of a 5-8 grade level configuration.” Put another way: there is no research supporting the move.

This vote to move 5th graders, however, sets up its next move: the building of a super-sized elementary school in Feasterville down windy Brownsville Rd., which would prompt the closure of the Heckman and Lower Southampton schools. This move would see students as young as 5 bussed during peak rush hour from north of St. Mary’s Hospital to Tawanka.

These six board members are governing based upon what they can make look good on paper, not based on balancing the needs of the educational process with prudent financial stewardship demanded by the taxpayers.

And what looks good on paper isn’t even honest: A brief look at the consolidation savings claimed by the board and district reveals a shell game. Two neighborhood elementary schools – Heckman and Lower Southampton – would be closed with the bulk of their students moving to the “super-sized” school. Yet when the board touts savings, they throw in operating costs for Everitt (located in Levittown) to inflate the savings. No students from Everitt would attend the new school, but an honest assessment of alleged savings would be a non-starter.

The projected operating costs for the new school are also suspicious. The total square footage of the new school matches the size of the two proposed closures, Heckman and Lower Southampton. Yet the board suggests that operating costs savings will be nearly halved in the new building. This simply doesn’t pass the smell test. Also hidden from these numbers is the cost of borrowing to build the new schools, a cost that will be spread out over a generation.

It’s folly to deny that our schools are aging, and that modernization is going to be necessary. What is equally foolhardy is to pretend that combining two schools into one will result in a halving of operating costs. And what is offensive is believing the public would accept this on its face.

A key aspect of attracting young, vibrant families to a community is the quality of its schools. For generations, this has meant neighborhood elementary schools, many within walking distance of the students they educated. This is how the Greatest Generation built our schools. They built them to be building blocks in the lives of generations following them, because they knew the value a well-educated youth brought to a community. The six members of the board are traitors to this legacy by sweeping aside what is best for Neshaminy’s communities to build a school in a fashion that puts many of its youngest students at a geographic disadvantage.

In discussing school choices with other parents, a theme has emerged: smart, professional parents with the means to move out of Neshaminy are often choosing that option rather than send their children to a district whose leadership, from the outside, treats as secondary its primary mission of educating. This has tangible effects that go beyond affecting the district, as the school system impacts home values and the quality of life for all residents – not just the parents.

I’m not certain if the masterminds on the board behind the consolidation plan, or the appointed members beholden to them, have deluded themselves into believing they are doing what is best for the district and its students despite resounding rejection from the public. Or perhaps they simply believe that it’s good governance to make monumental decisions that will affect a generation of students on the basis of near-term enrollment projections. Perhaps they don’t care to cultivate a district that is more, not less, attractive to the kinds of people, parents and students we want in our community.

The vote by the Neshaminy School board to move 5th grade to middle school calls for a public motion of no confidence in the six members supporting the change. Neshaminy residents are against the consolidation plan, yet six board members blithely voted to move 10 year olds to middle school anyway. This is not representing the interests of voters or the students.

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