Wissahickon Community Input Group Hears District Facility Study

The second Community Input Group meeting was held on Thursday at the district administrative offices. The group heard the facilities report from Arif Fazil, Prinicipal at D’Huy Engineering, and Robin Breslin, of Breslin Architects . The presentation given to the Community Input Group was the same as that given to the .

A facilities study is a requirement of the Pennsylvania Department of Education before a district can undertake any construction or capital projects. He added that the facilities study is a tool for school districts as they plan for the future for budgeting needs. He said when they build a facilities study they take a "systematic approach" and set "realistic and achievable goals."

When D'Huy Engineers began the facilities study, they field surveyed all the district facilities and created an itemized list of needs out over the next 10 years. Fazil said the district's facilities are currently in good condition, however, there will be needs within the next 10 years.

Fazil said there aren't many capital improvements that need to be done urgently, however, from what D'Huy Engineering estimates, about half of the district's facilities need to be renovated or replaced in the next 10 years. He continued that by the end of those 10 years, the district will need to start on the other half.

"[We need to] start to look on a holistic level," said Fazil.

As part of the facilities study, D'Huy Engineers gave the total capital improvements as a percentage of total renovations. In the elementary schools, Stony Creek Elementary is at 79 percent, Blue Bell Elementary at 72 percent, and Mattison Avenue Elementary at 67 percent.

One of the options presented by Breslin Architects is to close Mattison Avenue Elementary, a K-3 school, and integrate the Mattison Avenue students into Shady Grove and Lower Gwynedd Elementary Schools. The board and engineers claim there will be more efficient bus runs, better use of the excess capacity at Shady Grove, and potential redistricting for all elementary schools.

Breslin Architects and D'hut Engineering estimates that Mattison Avenue Elementary will cost $7.1 million to renovate, while Shady Grove Elementary will cost $18 million and Stony Creek Elementary will cost $13.3 million.

President of the school board, Young Park, said "We do not close school to save money."

School Board member Richard Stanton, said there are a variety of things that can be done with the Mattison Avenue School building that can serve the community better than the actual school.

Superintendent Judith Clark said the administration has run a few scenarios of redistricting but there is nothing definitive yet.

She added that the last time Wissahickon redistricted was in 2003. She said they strived to not break up neighborhoods, but it depended on how many students lived in each neighborhood.

Andrew DeGroat, a community member on the CIG said, "[It will be] infinitely less expensive" to borrow money to build today over ten years ago.

The next Community Input Group meeting will be held on Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the district administrative offices.