ORWIGSBURG - The fate of Blue Mountain Elementary Cressona could occur this month.
School board President Heather Gosch said Thursday after a combined committees meeting that school district residents should be prepared to learn of the decision soon.
"Sometime in February, we will have a decision on Cressona," Gosch said.
She would not say which way she was leaning toward and would not speak about what the rest of the board might do.
A decision is not permitted until Feb. 19, as a 90-day time frame is required per state law from the public hearing.
The district is considering closing the school to save money. According to information from the district, closing the school could save the district about $216,792 in the first year.
However, that number could be less depending on other factors, such as labor costs to outfit rooms into classrooms for a possible realignment of elementary students.
Currently, fourth- and fifth-grade students attend the school in Cressona.
Depending on where elementary students live, they could attend another school. Currently, children in kindergarten through fifth grade who live east of Route 61 in Mount Carbon, the Gordon Nagle Trail, Seiders Hill and Cressona would attend Blue Mountain Elementary East in Orwigsburg. Students who currently attend Blue Mountain Elementary West in Friedensburg who don't live in those areas would stay in that school.
A task force formed earlier this year did not make a decision about the school because they did not have enough information.
Superintendent Robert Urzillo said the decision would either be to keep Cressona open, close it or delay a decision.
"You can decide to defer for a year if you like," Urzillo said to the board.
Jay Newswanger, president of R&J Transportation, gave an overview of the bus runs for the district.
The last student is on the bus now until about 4:30 p.m., he said.
Some students could see their times decrease with school changes, while other times may increase.
He also said some students travel a long distance from where they live to the school they attend.
Gosch asked if redistricting students from all elementary schools would make sense from an efficiency standpoint.
Heath Renninger, principal of Blue Mountain Elementary West and Blue Mountain Elementary Cressona, said the sooner a decision is made, the better it would be for the parents.
"There will be parents starting to register at the end of February now. New parents coming into our district who may not have any idea where their child, their 5-year-old, will end up at school starting in August," he said.
David Zula, principal of Blue Mountain Elementary East, invited the board to come to the school during lunch and see how the capacity of the 30-minute lunch periods. Some board members said they would attend lunch at the school Wednesday.
Traffic issues, such as parents picking up their children, would need to be addressed if the decision to close Cressona is made, the principals said.
Board member David Lafko questioned the concerns.
"With all due respect, my job was just to look at my classroom space to see can I add six new classrooms to the building and that's what I did," Zula said.
Renninger said their role is bigger than that.
"We were clearly given a duty, Dave, to show exactly what the buildings would look like if this would happen, this would happen and that would happen. That was our role through the process," Renninger said.
Urzillo agreed the issues need to be examined. After the meeting, he said the issues in his opinion are not "insurmountable."
The next meeting of the school board is 7:15 p.m. Feb. 20 in the district office. The regular school board meeting is slated for 7:15 p.m. Feb. 27 in the middle school auditorium.