ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. —
Elizabethtown Area School District is facing fierce backlash over a plan to consolidate its elementary schools. The plan to move from small neighborhood schools to large campus-style schools would likely lead to the closure of two of the district’s four elementary schools, Rheems Elementary and Mill Road Elementary Schools.
Consolidation would reduce debt service, make more efficient use of resources and offer an equal education to students from all four elementary schools—Bainbridge, East High, Mill Road and Rheems—which currently vary in measures like student to teacher ratio and access to special education.
“I strongly believe… that it was my moral and ethical obligation to bring this scenario forward to the board to even consider,” Superintendent Balliet said at the school board meeting held March 10.
The possible consolidation has been part of the district’s long-term plan, district officials said.
“For the past two years, our district, with strong support from this exact board, has been pursuing a Life Ready Learner model for all of our students,” Balliet said.
Many parents aren’t as enthusiastic. An online petition to stop the consolidation has surfaced, garnering 1,300 signatures in four days. A “Save Rheems Elementary” group on Facebook had 500 members.
The organizer of Save Rheems Elementary, Tiara Wolfe, has three young children. Her daughter, Aubrey, is in third grade and has already attended three different schools. The 9-year-old is now doing well at Rheems Elementary, Wolfe said. The school is right down the street from their house. Wolfe fears her daughter would have to transfer, again, if Rheems closed.
“We felt railroaded,” Rheems said of a meeting she and two other Rheems moms had about the issue with Elizabethtown Area School District Superintendent Michele Balliet.
Wolfe said she found out about the plan two weeks ago and realized other Rheems Elementary parents also didn’t know about it. She found research suggesting smaller schools produce better educational outcomes for kids.
“[School district officials] have this vision that is failing where it`s implemented already, that they want to pass on the rest of our children,” Wolfe said.
Concerned parents packed the school board meeting, where all who spoke during public comment opposed consolidation.
“I don`t want to hear in two or three years we have to build a new school because we shut two down,” said Rheems Elementary parent Christie Allman Hamilton.
The consolidation would be built as an addition to the East High Elementary building.
The school board will vote at the end of March on whether to move forward with planned renovation of Rheems Elementary or hold off renovations to pursue the consolidation.
The process would take at least two to three years, and would probably close Rheems and Mill Road Elementary Schools.