On Wednesday, April 7, the School District of Lancaster board’s finance and operations management committee agreed to move discussion of Lancaster Township’s latest emergency services center proposal on to the next full board meeting. The committee’s decision followed a lengthy conversation regarding the potential benefits and drawbacks to the proposed site.
The School District of Lancaster owns the space known as the Lancaster Township Community Park and leases it to Lancaster Township. The proposed center would be located within this property, and the school board would have to provide authorization for any alternative land use.
In October of last year, the School District of Lancaster board gave the township its preliminary approval to beginning planning and design for a 6-7 acre plot in the Lancaster Township Community Park for a new emergency services center. One request from the board was that the township thoroughly investigate alternative sites—a process that recently culminated in the township’s altered proposal for a nearby site of only 2-4 acres.
After the meeting, Lancaster Township manager Bill Laudien told NewsLanc that, given the board’s October approval, the Township could simply have moved ahead with the earlier plan. Laudien said the purpose of his current request is largely to keep the district informed of the changes for when designs are ultimately presented for final approval.
“I guess what I’m looking for from the facilities committee and the board as a whole is permission to develop it this way as opposed to what was [approved] before,” Laudien said to the committee while introducing the discussion.
While reviewing the plan, board member Charlie Crystle recommended that the board take the new request as an opportunity to solicit mentoring and educational partnerships with the fire department.
Kim Lutz, an active member of the Friends of Lancaster Township Park group, spoke against the proposed location. Lutz said that both the original and the updated plans to locate the center in the park would be the first step in a long-term parsing out of open space in the area. Lutz asserted that, even if more space is allocated to the park to compensate for acreage developed, the district could simply take that added space back if it was desired for a school facility expansion.
Lutz also claimed that Laudien misrepresented last week’s Township Supervisors meeting when he told the Intelligencer New Era that most of the public favored the new plan. Board member Michael Rowen, who had also attended that meeting, later disagreed with Lutz’s assertion, holding that the article accurately characterized the tone of the audience.
All of the committee members agreed to pass the issue on to the next full board meeting to discuss it further with the board solicitor.
Possible budget cuts in discussion
Due to an error in a formula used for state-level education funding, the School District of Lancaster now has $1,117,683 less to work with for 2010-2011 than anticipated in its most recent preliminary budget. The district faces a total state funding deficit of $4,300,000. At the Wednesday meeting, chief financial officer Matt Przywara provided the committee with a list of potential budget reductions that could be implemented to make up for those limitations.
Areas for potential budget reduction included decreasing district funded building budgets by 10% ($200,000), school resources officers ($500,000), middle school sports ($250,000), supplemental materials reduction ($250,000), and more. One option would be to increase the size of classes, ultimately decreasing the need for teachers, which could save up to $1,260,000.
Przywara stressed that none of the options for reduction are necessarily a likelihood, and that all of these options will be thoroughly discussed in board settings through the months to come. The class size adjustment, Przwara further stressed, would only be a “bottom-of-the-list” last resort for the district.
I don’t understand what the School District of Lancaster has to do with this. They own some of the land? They’re contributing some of the money?
Editor’s response: They own the land and have leased it to Lancaster Township for a hundred years.