Mattison Ave. ES Supporters Speak Up

Almost four months after initially announcing the administration's recommendation to close Mattison Avenue Elementary School, the board and administration on Monday evening sat down to face the community's reaction.

After numerous negative public comments about the proposed closure at several intervening school board meetings, the opposition was perhaps not surprising, but Monday's public hearing format offered speakers a more robust platform to challenge the district's stated reasoning.

About 120 people—including a number of children attending with their parents—came to the hearing. About 20 spoke. All received applause and support from the assembly, but not all of them believed the district gave their comments much weight.

Rich Palumbo of Ambler, in particular, doubted the district's sincerity in scheduling the hearing.

"My fear is that we are here tonight not to have you listen, but because you have a legal obligation," Palumbo said.

The school district says it wants to close Mattison Avenue because the school is too small, because its facilities are inadequate, because its students suffer from an "achievement gap" relative to their peers, and because the school's K-3 format places it at odds with the other four elementary schools in the district, which are K-5.

District: Too many transitions

Mattison Avenue students currently merge into Shady Grove Elementary School following the third grade. They spend two years there before moving on to middle school for grades 6-8, then progress onward to Wissahickon High School. During a 35-minute slide presentation, the district presented the argument that the extra transition is detrimental to Mattison Avenue students' educational progress.

Jennifer Schmidt, the district's supervisor of curriculum and learning, presented numerous tables showing PSSA scores that Schmidt said demonstrated the "achievement gap" between Mattison Avenue students and their peers, beginning in the third grade and persisting through the sixth grade.

Assistant superintendent Matt Walsh said the test scores of former Mattison Avenue students continued to lag behind their colleagues through at least the eighth grade.

District business administrator Wade Coleman said closing the school would result in about $900,000 in annual savings in staffing and facilities costs. In theory, existing staff would not lose their jobs, but rather be used to fill vacancies caused by normal staff attrition in the district's other schools.

Coleman said the school needs at least $3.4 million in "maintenance and improvements," while a "full renovation" would cost $7 million.

The property has been appraised at $1.89 million, Coleman said.

Parents challenge district's arguments

New district resident Ryan Schultz, who moved to the area from the Central Bucks school district during the summer, presented himself as an impartial observer with "no emotional attachment" to the school. He initially believed the school should be closed, he said, but further analysis had changed his mind.

Schultz, who said he is a professional actuary, said he'd reviewed the same performance data used by the district in reaching its conclusions.

"After looking at the performance data and the school size data that you guys presented, it obviously presented almost the opposite of what your conclusions were ... Mattison Avenue clearly outperformed the other four [elementary] schools," Schultz said, saying that the focus should be on how the students' performances improved over the course of a school year.

Parent Christine DeLaurentis said the district's analysis "compared apples to oranges."

"It does not compare our students to students like them," DeLaurentis said. "While having the least amount of students, Mattison Avenue has an overwhelming 51 percent classified as economically disadvantaged. This is 43 percent of the economically disadvantaged students across the district in third grade ... our small community [school] meets the needs of this economically disadvantaged population and allows them to achieve where other schools in the district do not."

"Second class citizens"

Some of the mostly sharply worded criticism came from parent Amy Joyce, who said the school district had seemingly prioritized the construction of a new swimming pool at the "failing" Wissahickon High School over the preservation of Mattison Avenue.

"You've been talking about closing the 'achievement gap' [at Mattison Avenue Elementary School] since 1987. What have you done?" Joyce asked.

Joyce suggested that the transition for students leaving Mattison Avenue after the third grade was hindered by prejudicial attitudes at Shady Grove Elementary School.

"You're telling us over and over again that the transition is an issue," Joyce said. "My child has had zero issue with the transition. The only issue at Shady Grove is being asked, 'are you a Mattison [Avenue] kid?' That is our problem. That's a Shady Grove problem. That's a Wissahickon School District problem. That is your problem and that is your job to fix. We are treated like second-class citizens when we are moved [to Shady Grove]."

Joyce's comments received some of the loudest and most vocal support of the evening from other parents in attendance.

Her comments were partially echoed by former school board member Dawn Lazarus-Roberts, whose comments were read into the record by current board member Dick Stanton.

"The perception, right or wrong, is that Mattison Avenue is a school for poor students," Lazarus-Roberts wrote.

The hearing concludes next Monday, October 8, starting at 6:30 p.m.