SFASD Approves Prelim Funding for Arboretum

The Spring-Ford Area School District Board of Education approved funding of up to $30,000 for renovations to be made to the arboretum at the at Monday night's work session meeting. The board voted 6-1 to do so, despite voting on the same motion at the previous meeting, which did not pass.

At the April 16 meeting, Gail Wellington, owner of and the main volunteer to head up the project, gave a presentation about the arboretum's makeover, along with Dan Clark, a student who attends the in the Environmental Design program, and Barbara Mueller, the Environmental Design teacher at the Western Center.

"Last spring, Mr. [Joe] Ciresi came to me and said there’s a garden behind the Ninth Grade Center," said Wellington. "He asked me if it was worth fixing or bulldozing? I went in and said it was worth fixing and immediately thought of the Western Center, and asked Mrs. Mueller to have a look."

That's when the ball got rolling on the project. Clark, a junior, along with Dan Grimsley, a Western Center student and Upper Perkiomen junior, worked on a design for the reconstruction.

"I love gardens and I love flowers," Wellington said. "I’m too old to dig in the dirt so I drafted lots of young backs."

Clark presented his ideas to the board and public at the April 16 meeting. He said the garden will be more appealing for classes to go out and use it and that plant material would bloom in the fall, winter and spring, since that is when students are in school.

The arboretum was created and dedicated in the 1970s, but as members of the board noted, has been "neglected" since the 1990s.

"Those people gave [money] in good faith to something that should be reserved and improved," said Wellington. "Individual plants dedicated to individual people is not a good idea. If you put it there as a memorial to someone who is gone, and the plant doesn’t survive, it brings back awful memories."

Wellington said the group is thinking about dedicating the whole garden to all memorialized people rather than "individual trees." Dedication ideas include benches, signs (with information and pictures about various plants in the garden), bricks, name plates, and plaques.

Clark also said volunteers would clean up the area of the many piles of leaves and trash in the arboretum.

He continued by saying the appeal is not just for environmental/science programs, but for classes like art, English, Earth science, math and photography, to name a few.

The class also plans to create a "pondless stream" - a small fountain with water running to the bottom and pumped back through, as well as vertical gardens with pallets filled with soil 

"The students worked very hard on this," said Wellington.

Wellington continued, noting that motion sensor lighting was another option for the garden, as she hoped nothing bad would happen to the garden.

At this point, Wellington said there is no final budget, but she will be soliciting donations to get most, if not the entire garden paid for at no cost to the district. The 6-1 vote on Monday night ensured the project be "seeded" with the district's capital project money from the defeasing of the bonds, but hopefully paid back through local donations. Wellington also estimated the project be done in about a year-and-a-half.

"The good news is we can do a lot in phases," said Wellington. "We can plant now and add everything else at a later point. The big goal right now is to get more people involved. Alum Association, faculty members, more citizens; so we can go out and make people aware. I will work on finding money in the community and grants."

Mueller indicated that as this school year dwindles, the first the students will be able to get out is in the fall. That allows the group time to get funding settled and iron out any wrinkles. Mueller said they are looking at paving, as well.

"Fall is a better time to plant anyway," Mueller said. "As winter hits, we'll pull bank, and as funding allows, we'll add phases within the project."

At the April 16 meeting, Board President Tom DiBello put forth the original motion to provide the initial funding for the project. DiBello reported that some capital projects are coming in at slightly lower prices than originally anticipated, which is why there is room to put the $30,000 up for this project.

Board member Mark Dehnert disagreed with the motion, saying he did not want to put this burden on the taxpayers.

DiBello ensured that the money would be reimbursed through donations.

"I've known Gail for many years," DiBello said. "If she says she's going to go out and do something, she'll get it done. It's hard to say no to her."

The motion failed, as board members Julie Mullin, Clara Gudolonis, Ed Dressler and Joe Ciresi were absent from the meeting, and Dehnert's "nay" did not allow the board to provide the five "ayes" necessary to pass. Ciresi showed up after the vote was taken.

When the motion was brought to the table again on Monday night, Dehnert questioned why the board is allowed to just put motions on the table without them being on the agenda. He reiterated his non-support of preliminary funding, but it wasn't enough. Dressler and David Shafer were absent from that meeting, but "ayes" from Mullin, Ciresi, DiBello, Gudolonis, Dawn Heine and Bernard Pettit passed the motion.

Wellington is putting together a list and preliminary budget of the first phase of the project for the business office.

Other Board Notes

• Administration approved entering into an independent contract with John W. Knebl of Collegeville, to provide consulting services in the area of Human Resources. Services will be provided at a rate of $150 per hour. Funding will be paid from the 2011-12 General Fund and shall not exceed $6,000.

• Oaks Elementary School Principal Mark Moyer was on hand at the April 16 meeting to present Tara Chester (English as a Second Language teacher) and Oaks students, who sang a song for the public (see video above). Oaks Elementary is the central hub for all elementary students, kindergarten through fourth grade. District-wide the department services approximately 54 students at all of the schools in the district.
• On the evening of May 9 (6:30 p.m.) the school will hold its annual ESL Family Night and dinner celebration, where 14 countries will be represented through taste testing authentic foods.