Additional data has been requested as part of the ongoing school closure process.

The Warren County School District board held a closure hearing last week on a proposal to shudder high schools in Sheffield and Youngsville and consolidate those students to Warren and Eisenhower, respectively.

Board member John Wortman said during Monday’s meeting that he has two specific requests for information in light of issues raised at the hearing.

The first addressed safety, especially emergency medical services response.

Wortman said there “is an EMS crisis in Warren County and Pennsylvania” and said the city’s ambulance has responded to Youngsville because Youngsville did not respond.

He asked that the administration gather data on EMS response rates in Warren County and look at the “number of dropped calls within each of the municipalities.”

The second issue was tied to foreign language offerings.

“The Warren County School District has graduates that have gone on to Ivy League studies,” he said. “We must offer coursework that will enable all students” to pursue those goals if they wish. “We can do more,” he said, citing a “need to end a continual focus on financing buildings” over academic excellence.

PUBLIC COMMENT

About a dozen people were in attendance at Monday night’s meeting and several addressed the board relative to the closure issue.

“We’re finding we’re not getting answers to questions,” Barb Lutton said. “I think there’s a lot of confusion. We feel like this is being done extremely fast.”

Annie Cook argued that communities outside of the city support businesses in the central attendance area and claimed there is a “prejudice based on income and tax rates.”

“Where is our tax money going? Obviously, it’s not going to the smaller schools,” she said, claiming there is an “absurd number” of electives in the central schools.

She speculated there is a political agenda behind this and said those using the school board to jump start a political career might not see the support from the outlying communities.

“The quality of the education has nothing to do with the building,” David Myers added, and has “more to do with the quality of the teacher providing it. Anything that can be taught at Eisenhower can also be taught in Youngsville.”

He claimed that administrative cuts could exceed the projected annual savings from closing Youngsville.

Harold Dunkle said they’ve been comparing the WCSD to other school districts and cited Penncrest, claiming that that district has fewer administrators and a budget $30 million smaller.

“Where is the money going? What exactly is it used for? It just seems wasteful.”

Wendy Wilcox called on the board to reissue the QZAB bonds and close Eisenhower and claimed that would “save the heartache for the future” and “save money.”

Sherrie Hodak cited the presence of technology as a means of students being able to take any course they need.

“(The) students that want those classes are the students that are very well able to work on Zoom,” she said. “I don’t believe you have that many students that it makes that difference to. Don’t tell me you can offer more classes in Eisenhower or Warren than you can in Sheffield without any additional teachers. I’m going to call it what it is. That is a total lie. You need to get your crap together. We’re not stupid to fall for that crap.”

Elizabeth Feronti noted that Youngsville Police patrol in the mornings and afternoons when kids are coming to and leaving school. She claimed that time marks shift change for the state police and Sheriff’s Office and questioned the response times that would result.