Controversial KO School Closings Not Likely

Is the controversial Keystone Oaks school consolidation plan, including the closing of two neighborhood elementary schools, a moot point? Are these truly the last futile deeds of a lame-duck school board and a retiring superintendent, enacted despite the knowledge these decisions will be overturned within months?

Apparently, yes, according to a sitting board member, an unopposed board candidate and a statement made by retiring superintendent Dr. William Urbanek, through James Cromie, communications specialist for the district. 

Cromie replied via email in response to an interview request: "He (Dr. Urbanek) basically told me, 'Look Jim, we have hashed, rehashed, re-rehashed  and re-re-rehashed this thing about 250 times over the past few years and I'm tired of talking about it. The board has already voted on it and the decision has been made. And the incoming board has already vowed to reverse this board's decision as their first course of action in December so their decision is made as well. All that talking about it now does is serve as a divisive issue for the community and it distracts us from more important pursuits like educating our students. I'm not going to play into that divisiveness and I don't see any point in discussing it further.'" 

(Six of the current nine board members' terms are up this year and the majority of likely replacements have vowed to repeal the school consolidation plan. Urbanek announced at this month's board meeting that he would be retiring in December.)

Robert Lloyd of Dormont, a 16-year veteran of the school board who is up for re-election this December, was the single abstaining vote on the consolidation plan. He says he refused to participate in a vote the board should not have been making at all.

"Nothing is mentioned about what it will cost the taxpayers. There was not enough information. It is a lame duck board and it was fruitless for them to waste time voting on it. Why get upset when the new members will just override the vote? There should be nothing even on the agenda to vote at this point, it is no more than fair to leave it to the new board."

The divisiveness of this issue has been evidenced by vocal crowds at both this month's school board special meeting to vote on closing Myrtle Avenue Elementary in Castle Shannon and Fred L. Aiken Elementary in Green Tree, and at a three-hour public hearing in June.

About a hundred persons gathered each time, with most expressing opposition to the board's plan to redistrict its students by closing the two neighborhood elementary schools and busing students into one elementary center in . The plan also requires sending fifth-graders to the district's middle school/high school complex in Mt. Lebanon.

Voters seem to have shown their displeasure as well. In the spring school board primaries, (SOS) had five candidates voted in to run in the November election, including Dan Domalik and Dave Hommrich of Green Tree (running unopposed), and Lisa Cancelliere of Castle Shannon (unopposed), as well as Raeann Lindsey of Castle Shannon and Dormont's Joe Finucan.

SOS candidates have run on a platform staunchly opposing consolidation and school closings. They are part of the grassroots organization that has grown from a small group of people who banded together three years ago to fight against closing the local schools. The issue has propelled SOS members into becoming a viable force in Keystone Oaks politics, operating their own website and a Facebook group with 645 members.

They are a consistent presence at school board meetings, as well as local government meetings. Yet, the waning weeks of the current configuration of the Keystone Oaks Board of School Directors have been marked by long-term commitments and long-range plans.

Along with the comprehensive consolidation plan, commitments have been made far beyond the current board's tenure. Cromie's contract has been extended for another three years and he was awarded a one-time performance bonus of $1,500 at last week's regular board meeting. 

The passage of a three-year teacher contract extension last month, when the current contract is not due for renewal for two more years, has been called precipitous by some of the candidates for the board, especially considering the district's claims of declining enrollment and shrinking tax base. 

"One of the first things we will do when we take office in December is to look line-by-line at the new contract," says Dan Domalik, one of two Green Tree residents running unopposed in the November elections. 

Domalik had complained at the special meeting about the feeling of disenfranchisement felt by the potential incoming members of the school board. He expressed the opinion that the current board had overstepped its bounds by committing the district to contracts nearly five years into an uncertain future.

He quoted from a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, Mitchell v. Chester Housing Authority, which in part states:

"The obvious purpose of the rule is to permit a newly appointed governmental body to function freely on behalf of the public and in response to the governmental power or body politic by which it was appointed or elected, unhampered by the policies of the predecessors who have since been replaced by the appointing or electing power. To permit the outgoing body to ‘hamstring’ its successors by imposing upon them a policy implementing [sic] and to some extent, policymaking [sic] machinery, which is not attuned to the new body or its policies, would be to most effectively circumvent the rule."

It remains to be seen whether the incoming board, due to be sworn in on Dec. 8, will challenge the validity of any of the recent contracts. The new board members also will have to deal with an expected budget shortfall that was supposed to be offset by closing the schools and consolidating services. 

Domalik insists SOS candidates are determined to find alternative funding sources and budget items to cut, but school closings are not an option.

"Schools are woven into the fabric of the community," he insists.