April 2014 Issue - Southern Lehigh Spotlight

Page 1

Southern Lehigh High School 5800 Main Street Center Valley, PA 18034

APRIL 2014 Volume 57 Issue 5

spotlight

In this

Issue:

District Makes Way For New Elementary School by Anna Simoneau

Do you love hockey? Turn to page 11 to read more about the Phantoms coming to Allentown.

If you are in search of a new game or already addicted, find out more about 2048 on page 4.

Marriage equality is debated once again. Read more on page 6.

The best-selling book “Divergent” gets transformed into a movie. Flip to page 13 for more details.

Want to see more?

Two elementary schools, Lower Milford (left) and Hopewell (above) are affected by the district’s plan. Photo Credit: Southern Lehigh School District

The Southern Lehigh school board has recently made the decision to close Lower Milford and Hopewell Elementary Schools and build a bigger school in Hopewell's place to make the elementary school system run more efficiently. Under the current plan, which is to be enacted in about a year, Lower Milford and Hopewell will be closed permanently. Hopewell will be demolished and a new, bigger school will be built on the property. In the future, all elementary school students will be split between this new school and Liberty Bell, which will remain the same. The decision to makethis change came about when the Board Facilities Committee reviewed a five-year plan for anticipated repairs to the elementary schools. They discovered that it would be more economical to build a new school rather than repair Hopewell's systems. Multiple options were reviewed and the current option was selected as the most cost-effective and beneficial to students. "Think of it in a similar fashion to repairs on an older car," Superintendent Leah Christman said. "Things will start to fail at some point and as a car-owner, you must at some point decide if it makes more sense to keep repairing things that go wrong or buy a new more technologically advanced and more efficient car. In the long run, which is more economical?" Besides newer, better facilities, the new change has many other benefits. Overall, most students should have a shorter bus ride. Also, class sizes will initially stay the same and work toward smaller class sizes as the economy

recovers. Despite the cost of the new school, under the current plan, taxes will not need to increase. Another major benefit of the current plan is that no teaching jobs will be lost, just redistributed. "There are only a few positions that may have overlap and therefore may not be needed at one of the elementary buildings, but we will create a plan to utilize all employees,” Superintendent Christman said. “Some may possibly replace other positions as individuals retire or leave the district for other reasons, but we have no intention for any current employee to lose a position as a result of the building project and [we] are confident that will be possible." Since many students at the high school have gone through one of these schools, the news comes with a lot of sadness and nostalgia. "When you drive by it, it brings back memories," senior Crystal Rizzuto said. "I wasn't sad until I drove by." Although the old schools will be missed, most students realize the change is for the best. "Its kinda upsetting, but as long as they're rebuilding it, that's fine," junior Nick Peoples said. "I guess they kinda have to take it down. From what I heard, its not really safe." Additional information on the change is posted under "Elementary Buildings Planning" on the district website. More information will be posted under "Elementary Building Project."


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