The following is the fifth in a five-part series, in which candidates for seats on the North Penn school board answer questions from the AAUW Lansdale Branch. For more information and their full voter guide visit www.aauwlansdale.org
Question five: School districts statewide are facing major infrastructure issues due to schools’ aging, states of disrepair, and inadequate funding. North Penn School District is embarking on a major renovation project of North Penn High School. What is your plan to address the lengthy list of capital improvement projects in NPSD?
Elisha Gee: We have a lot to address with capital improvement projects in NPSD. With the NPHS renovation project, we have an opportunity to support a project that will allow us to renovate our high school to be an innovative learning space that will engage students in 21st century learning. One of the first actions of our board was to put into place a comprehensive 10-year capital improvement plan to address the current infrastructure needs. The plan to accomplish all of this is to continue to assess and prioritize the infrastructure needs in our district while also maintaining a fiscally responsible approach to the decisions that we need to make with each capital project
Tim MacBain: Several years ago, before our current team of school board directors arrived, there was no comprehensive hub of reliable data by which to fully grasp the physical conditions of our schools and administrative buildings. North Penn also lacked any data-based long-term facilities plan to address the inevitable and constant flow of infrastructure needs as district buildings continued to age over the years. Since then, we’ve completed a full and detailed facilities assessment and developed a 10-year comprehensive facility improvement plan to help us manage our resources and our community’s needs to meet the demands of our aging buildings and campuses. This process created a solid basis by which we could finally plan responsible new projects to address the needs that our community has been concerned about for decades.
As we tackle the long-ignored deterioration of our flagship North Penn High School and the needs of our three middle schools, we’re continuing to use hard data to inform our steps while inviting members of our community to take part in our decision-making processes. Open community forums, public live-streamed meetings, dedicated district resources to inform our neighbors about our facilities, and providing an open and purely democratic opportunity to decide our community’s next steps for North Penn HS help to ensure this culture will continue into the next phases of our district’s ongoing work to improve our facilities.
Juliane Ramic: With 18 academic buildings plus additional buildings that house the North Penn School District’s administrative, support, and transportation teams, the care, maintenance, and renovation of these invaluable assets is critical to the success of our district.
I am proud to have been able to serve on the North Penn School Board’s Facilities and Operations Committee, where in partnership with the Administration, we created a 10 year Capital Improvement Plan that is shared and reviewed during our monthly meetings and made available for community review on the North Penn School District’s website. This plan measures safety, physical condition, education impact, age, and original life expectancy and was the first step in being able to create a comprehensive plan to ensure we are strategic in our effort to both maintain and renovate our centers of student learning. There is no doubt that with the size, age, and condition of those 18 academic buildings, that we will need to work together as a community to support renovations in a planned and well-considered manner, knowing that the investment in time and resources will benefit students over the next several decades.
As a former Knapp parent, I am grateful for the Knapp community’s advocacy and support of the planning, design, and construction phases of the renovation project. In the end, we were able to use the ‘old bones’ of the 1955 original construction to redesign it into a beautiful facility fit to meet the needs of our students in the 21st century. Up next, I stand ready to engage with our community in the planning for our high school renovation, and even begin to look out on to the horizon to begin considering what we need from our middle school buildings. With our students spending at least seven hours of their day in a North Penn building, providing them with access to spaces that are safe, in good repair, and designed with their academic needs and interests in mind is an investment worth making.
Kunbi Rudnick: To address the extensive capital improvement needs in the school district, the administration has established a strategic prioritization plan, which is being executed. There are known urgent safety concerns and functional deficiencies which need to be addressed. We must continue categorizing projects based on criticality, impact on student learning, and community needs. From an execution perspective, I would leverage phased renovations to minimize disruptions while collaborating with local stakeholders, involving parents, teachers, and students in decision-making, and ensuring transparent communication throughout the process.
Cathy Wesley: The district has a 10 year capital project plan that assesses capital needs for all of our assets. It is reviewed, reassessed periodically. I believe this process should be continued in order to identify the projects that require completion with their time frame and an estimated cost also provided. The plan includes specific criteria and applies an overall weight to each project on the list. I believe utilizing this methodology will provide us with an accurate assessment of which projects are in need of being completed and thereby, being clear about how many projects and the total budget that are required to be planned in a given timeframe. With a district as large as ours, being proactive and having a road map are important.
Vince Altieri: As eluded to in a previous answer, PRIORITIZE projects that provide students and teachers the necessary tools so they can achieve their maximum potential is the SIMPLE answer. While the decision to focus resources on other projects BEFORE renovations were made can’t be reversed, the current plan to renovate North Penn is headed down a dangerous path with an equally dangerous price tag of nearly ONE BILLION DOLLARS. A prior question asked how to “moderate opposing factions” in our community. Well, NPSDs current BODs has decided to only invite certain community members to discuss the high school renovations – how is this transparent and inclusive? But while past mistakes can’t be reversed, I am committed to being a Board of Director that asks questions and demands answers, especially when it comes to providing North Penn students with a learning center that is air conditioned and full of what is NEEDED to promote ACADEMIC EXCELENCE. Furthermore, a shiny new school isn’t necessarily the answer. However, if PARENTS without their own agendas aren’t elected … how does a PARENT like me get invited to these private meetings?
Diana Blystone: Infrastructure that is effecting academic achievement and safe learning environment for students and staff is a priority in my decision making. It’s the people in the building that provide children with opportunities and high academic achievement. Identifying needs and evaluating wants on all aspects of the project will be fundamental to addressing North Penn’s infrastructure improvements. Air conditioning for Pennfield and Pennbrook will be reevaluated with urgency since air conditioning is effecting learning and the ability to accommodate ADA requirements.
Liz Vazquez: Improvement projects are necessary but we have to focus on what is currently affecting teachers abilities to teach and the students ability to learn. Primarily in the middle schools and the poor air quality. Providing a safe environment for the pursuit of academic excellence.
This is the fifth in a five-part series presented in partnership between the AAUW Lansdale Branch and The Reporter; for more information visit www.aauwlansdale.org
This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit www.thereporteronline.com.
See also:
North Penn School Board Candidates Answer Questions from AAUW Lansdale Branch: Part 4
North Penn School Board Candidates Answer Questions from AAUW Lansdale Branch: Part 3
North Penn School Board Candidates Answer Questions from AAUW Lansdale Branch: Part 2
North Penn School Board Candidates Answer Questions from AAUW Lansdale Branch: Part 1
