Turnpike Elementary School to be permanently closed

BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN

Faced with declining enrollment, the Turnpike Elementary School in Mildred will be permanently closed down after the 2010-11 school year, the president of the Sullivan County School Board confirmed.

The school board on Tuesday voted 5-3 to shutter the school, said Nancy Craft, president of the Sullivan County School Board.

The Turnpike School's 130 students will be moved to the Sullivan County Elementary School in Laporte, she said.

Faced with declining student enrollment in the Sullivan County School District, "we think it will be a better use of our money to consolidate, and a better use of our teachers," Craft said. "All of our teachers will be in one building, and they'll be able to communicate and share ideas."

Over the last 10 years, enrollment in the Sullivan County School District has declined by 278 students to the current enrollment of 627 students, said Steven Gobble, superintendent of schools.

The state Department of Education is projecting that enrollment in the school district will "bottom out at 557 students, I believe in 2016-17," Gobble said.

Gobble said he does not foresee a big population influx from the gas drilling industry that will offset the declining enrollment.

So far, enrollment in the school district has not increased at all due to the gas drilling, he said.

And while a gas pipeline has been proposed for Sullivan County, economic development agencies say that "if there will be any people coming to the area (to work in the gas industry), they will be kind of transient in nature - (they'll be here for) two years, tops," he said.

There would need to be substantial money invested to keep the Turnpike School open, Craft said.

"There are stress fractures that have occurred" in some of the walls in a section of the Turnpike School, she said.

While the school is still safe, despite the stress fractures, "we need to explore what we need to do to keep that way," she said, adding that measures may need to be taken to address the fractures.

Among the other projects that would need to be done at the Turnpike School are the replacement of its roof in the next few years, she said. The building is also not handicapped-accessible, she said.

To accommodate the additional students at the Sullivan County Elementary School, the school district is looking at constructing an addition onto the school, she said.

"We're looking into a feasibility study of adding additional classrooms to the Sullivan County Elementary School," Craft said.

Under the school district's preliminary plans, nine classrooms would be added to the Sullivan County Elementary School, and an administrative complex would also be added to the Laporte school campus, she said.

The construction of the administrative complex would allow the school district's offices in Dushore to be moved to the Laporte campus, she said.

The feasibility study would provide cost estimates for the addition to the Sullivan County Elementary School, and would also evaluate how much space is needed in the addition, according to Craft and Gobble.

The feasibility study would be conducted by a consultant hired by the school district.

The consolidation will also allow class sizes to be equalized at the elementary school level, so that the number of students does not vary from one classroom to another at a given grade level, she said.

The consolidation will result in various kinds of savings, such as reduced maintenance costs and less salaries and benefits to pay, Gobble said.

With declining enrollment and consolidation, the school district will be taking "a very hard look" at whether to replace teachers and other staff when they retire, he continued.

"It is anticipated that through retirements and attrition" the savings in salaries in benefits "will be adequate to pay for the building project," Gobble said.

However, he stressed that it is not anticipated that any teachers will be laid off due to the consolidation.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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