Our View: Millcreek School Board has much to explain
ERIE TIMES NEWS | February 14, 2013

The Millcreek School Board has decided to take another look at its costly plan to demolish McDowell Senior High School and consolidate the senior high with McDowell Intermediate High School.

One Millcreek Township citizens group welcomed the change of heart. "It depends on what they end up doing, but I think the taxpayers won," says Gino Montagna, who organized No New McDowell, which used Facebook and distributed protest signs to publicize its opposition to the School Board's proposed $94 million renovation plan. "We just want to see them fix what needs to be fixed."

But before school directors and administrators decide how to fix the physical plant at the two McDowell buildings, they have to fix multiple problems related to this project, including the lack of a long-range strategic plan for school repairs and looming budget problems. According to an audit for the 2011-12 school year, the district overestimated revenue and underestimated expenses.

"Until we really sit down and look at the next few years of finances in depth, it'll be premature to say what we should do," School Director Shawn Conrad says. But wasn't it premature for the School Board to vote to consolidate McDowell Senior High and McDowell Intermediate High without such scrutiny of finances? When school directors voted 8-1 for consolidation on July 30, only Michael Kobylka voted against the project. Several School Board members insisted consolidation was the right choice. "We've spent two years, 33 meetings and countless discussions, arguments and agreements looking at renovation and consolidation," Brian Kramer said then.

Now some school directors say that renovations should occur in stages, perhaps over three to five years. But individual board members also are voicing opinions on what that phased-in work should include. Judy Wheaton says maybe a new science wing should be added to McDowell Intermediate. Ronald Wilga suggests constructing new science labs at both school buildings. Kramer says the two schools should still merge eventually. Those decisions should be made after a long-range plan is created, vetted and presented to the public, not before. School directors have agreed, though, not to move Gus Anderson Field, even though the board approved spending as much as $500,000 for architectural designs for the new field on April 30.

Board members also need to explain the timing of Michael Golde's resignation as superintendent. Golde, on a leave of absence, is stepping down for health reasons. Golde championed the McDowell consolidation and said it would be financially feasible without any immediate tax increases. Yet the financial audit showed that Golde improperly transferred $5 million from the district's capital reserve fund to the general fund in July, without board approval, before moving it back in October. Citizens will not have confidence in the board's ability to rethink plans for McDowell until school directors offer more transparency about Golde.