Census data: Hundreds of E-town area children live in poverty

Does anyone else find this troubling? The U.S. Census, as reported by LancasterOnline, shows that 408 children ages 5 to 17 live in poverty in the Elizabethtown Area School District. That's 8 percent of the students in the school district (not just those attending public schools). According to the newspaper website, the numbers are "noticably higher than they were in 2009." And the numbers are likely even higher when you consider they don't include younger children who aren't in school yet.

Here's a chart from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that shows how much income families must have to be considered in poverty:

Persons in family/household	Poverty guideline
For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $4,060 for each additional person.
1	$11,670
2	15,730
3	19,790
4	23,850
5	27,910
6	31,970
7	36,030
8	40,090

You also have to consider a family of four that brings in $27,000 a year. They aren't in poverty, according to the federal rules, but they certainly aren't making ends meet easily.

Through my church, Christ Church United Church of Christ, I learned that many families with students in the schools can't afford meals during the weekends. Members of Christ Church are helping the school district to distribute backpacks full of food to help those families through the weekend.

It's easy to overlook the issue of poverty in a community like Elizabethtown because the concentration isn't as great and noticeable as it is in an urban environment. LancasterOnline reported that nearly one-third of children in the Lancaster City School District are in poverty. But the issues are real here in rural parts of the county, and we all as a community need to be aware and step up to help when we can.

The Hershey Company donates $50K to E-town Area Education Foundation

At last Friday's Elizabethtown Bears football game, The Hershey Company pledged $50,000 to the Elizabethtown Area Education Foundation’s (EAEF) Investing in Our Children, Our Community, Our Future Capital Campaign.

Designed to raise funds for improvements to Elizabethtown Area School District’s Jane Hoover Field, the campaign has now raised more than $900,000. With The Hershey Company’s generous pledge, the campaign is now 54 percent toward its goal of $1.7 million.


From left, campaign honorary chairman Jack Cassebaum,
Robert Enck, Jim George, EASD Superintendent Michele Balliet.


“The Hershey Company is dedicated to making a difference in the communities where we live, work and do business, with a particular focus on children at risk,” said Jim George, vice president of corporate social responsibility. “This is part of the legacy established by our founder, Milton Hershey. We strive to ensure that Mr. Hershey's legacy lives on and grows with our company through the support of initiatives such as the Elizabethtown Area Education Foundation’s Investing in Our Children, Our Community, Our Future Capital Campaign."

The EAEF launched the campaign to light and install artificial turf on Jane Hoover Field so that it is safer, can be use more often, and is more reliable for the growing number of school district and youth sport programs. In addition, increasing the number of uses of Jane Hoover Field decrease uses on Thompson Field so it will be a high quality grass field. The much needed upgrades will help to ensure the fields are safe and accessible to not only district programs but also the many community groups like GEARS, the Elizabethtown Boys Club, and Rheems Athletic Association that regularly use them. It is expected that the field improvements will be completed for the start of the 2013 fall sports season.

The foundation is spearheading the campaign so that private contributions will be used to improve school district athletic facilities with little to no impact on the district’s millage rate. Campaign chairs are Elizabethtown natives Barbara Andrews, Kevin Dolan, Robert Enck, and Joseph Murphy. Contributions to the campaign are tax deductible and will benefit E-town athletics and the community for current and future generations.

The Hershey Company is the largest producer of quality chocolate in North America and a global leader in chocolate and sugar confectionery. With revenues of more than $6 billion, Hershey offers confectionery products under more than 80 brand names. Corporate Social Responsibility is an integral part of the company’s global business strategy, which includes goals and priorities focused on fair and ethical business dealings, environmental stewardship, fostering a desirable workplace for employees, and positively impacting society and local communities.

The Elizabethtown Area Education Foundation formed in 1989 to provide scholarship opportunities for deserving Elizabethtown Area High School graduates. Over the years, the foundation has evolved to support more than just graduating seniors. The foundation now secures funding and awards monies that enrich and enhance learning in the district. Since launching its educational classroom grant program in 2009, the foundation has awarded grants totaling over $64,000 in monies to district staff for the implementation of innovative programs in the classroom.

The Bear Creek School Experience, Year 1

This school year, the Elizabethtown Area School District opened its new Bear Creek School, consolidating all fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders in one building. Now that it almost has a full school year completed, I'd like to share some thoughts from my perspective as a parent of a fifth-grader.

As with any new building, the start of the school year posed some challenges with busing and a strange odor that caused school to be canceled for one day. And, as district Superintendent Michele Balliet, likes to say, that doesn't account for epic flooding that closed school for a day in September and a freak late-October snowstorm.

After sorting through the challenges, I think Bear Creek found its legs and took off running. At least that's been our son's experience. We have found teachers and staff to be friendly and professional. More important, they have progressively provided more challenging opportunities -- in reading, math and trombone lessons and band -- for our son without our urging. He has responded well to the challenges. In my mind, that's what public school is all about.

Now, let me say that this has been one family's experience with one student. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section about your experiences -- good, bad or indifferent. Given that Bear Creek has 900-some students, I'm sure every family has a slightly different take.

During Bear Creek's planning stages, Borough Council went on record as opposing the location of the school. The primary reason was because there was no walking connection and that the vast majority of students would be bussed there. We were concerned about increased traffic from buses and the dozens of parents who would be dropping off and picking up their students each day. The school district did construct a walking path that connects Bear Creek to the E-town Fairgrounds (which the district owns).

Generally, I think everything has worked well. That said, there's one improvement I'd like to see. Mount Joy Township should widen Bear Creek Road road and install sidewalks at least on one side. Until I started dropping off my son early a few mornings a week, I never realized just how many pedestrians use the road. I've encountered dog walkers, runners, exercise walkers and bicyclists. I've run a number of times there myself. Given the sheer volume of traffic and the pedestrians, it would be a boon to safety to make these improvements.

So now I'll pose the question to you: What improvements would you like to see at Bear Creek School now that it's a year old?

EASD dedicates new Bear Creek School

In my official capacity as the parent of a student at the new Bear Creek School, I attended the dedication ceremony for the $18 million building held yesterday. Originally scheduled for Oct. 30, it was delayed because of that day's freak snowstorm.

The dedication was a nice event, with all the typical dignitaries speaking and thanking the appropriate individuals.

Two details stood out to me during the ceremony:

• In 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Education said the Bear Creek School construction project was the cheapest of all school construction in the Commonwealth, according to school Director Terry Seiders, who is chairman of the school board's Facilities Committee. He said the project cost $115 per square foot; in 2009, the average cost for school construction was $183 per square foot.
   
• School Board President Jamie Rowley said Bear Creek is the first brand new school, on a new footprint, that the Elizabethtown Area School District has built in 50 years.

Those are notable details, to be sure. 

In the program handed out yesterday, the district noted some other details:

• The district originally estimated construction at about $23 million, but a favorable construction climate saved nearly $5 million.
  
• The project is funded through general obligation bonds. The debt, according to the program, has no impact on the district's tax rate because the district has paid off some debt, the difference between construction estimates and actual costs as noted above and favorable interest rates.
  
• The 153,000-square-foot school has 48 classrooms housing fourth, fifth and sixth graders. It has five science labs, nine small group instruction spaces, two art rooms, a full-sized gym and an auxiliary gym, a food court and cafeteria and an outdoor play area.
  
• The school has 940 students, 61 teachers, two administrators and 28 support staff.

Bear Creek School certainly is a state-of-the-art facility, with technology such as wireless internet throughout and smart boards in every classroom. I certainly am pleased that my 11-year-old is in a brand new school and can take advantage of new technologies that were only a dream when I was his age.

High school students can text anonymous tips to cops

An anonymous tip texted via cellphone to Elizabethtown School Resource Officer Rick Farnsler earlier this school year might have saved a life.

Through a program Farnsler set up, an Elizabethtown High School student texted that another student might be suicidal. Upon receiving the text, Farnsler communicated anonymously with the first student and was able to get the name of the second student. He then contacted school officials, who set in motion crisis intervention to help the second student.

Farnsler is a borough police officer assigned to the Elizabethtown Area High School full time for several years. Since working at the school, he told Borough Council earlier this month, he has tried various ways to encourage students to provide tips. They have included a hotline and a "suggestion" box -- but he said he "never once" got a tip through either.

Knowing that teenagers text as a primary way of communciating, Farnsler researched how he could use texting to receive anonymous tips. He found a program that is entirely anonymous, with no way for him to find out who texted him because the servers are located in Canada. That, he said, is key because students don't want want to develop a reputation as a "snitch." All students have to do is text to the number 27637 and include "etown" in the body of the message, and he and several school officials receive a text.

The program cost $1,600 per year. Farnsler approached the Elizabethtown Rotary Club, which is sponsoring the program for this school year.

"It's a great partnership between the school, the police, the borough and the Rotary," he said.

"If we saved that life," Police Chief Jack Mentzer said, referring to the suicide intervention, "this program has already paid for itself a thousand times over."

Farnsler said this is the only program of its type -- completely anonymous texting -- for high school students in Lancaster County.

I echo what my fellow Councilman Tom Shaud told Farnsler: "You've done something to make the borough proud."

School board approves redistricting plan

This morning, I happened to see on Facebook that the Elizabethtown Area School District posted its redistricting plan that will move a number of elementary students into different schools. This is the result of the opening Bear Creek Intermediate School, which all fourth, fifth and sixth graders in the district will attend next year, and the closing of Fairview Elementary School.

Construction continues at East High Elementary School

The Elizabethtown Area School District has posted a photo gallery to track the progress of construction at East High Elementary School. I drove by the other day and was surprised by the progress so far. Check out the Project-at-a-Glance page on the district's site for details about the school and construction.

E-town Area SD receives conditional approval for East High Street plans

Elizabethtown Borough Council granted conditional approval to the Elizabethtown Area School District for its plans to expand East High Street Elementary School and other improvements to the campus and sports fields on East High Street.

School district Superintendent Amy Slamp and other representatives presented the plans in a conditional use hearing to Borough Council on April 15. The hearing was the first step in the approval process for constructing the addition at the elementary school. The district will need to seek additional approvals from the zoning hearing board and Borough Council after submitting a land development plan.

Under the borough's zoning ordinance, applicants who submit plans to expand their facilities by more than 10,000 square feet must have a conditional use hearing before Borough Council. During the hearings, the applicants and the borough administrative staff present testimony is a quasi-judicial hearing. If council approves of plans, it can impose conditions.

In the case of EASD, council approved the application with a list of 31 conditions.

Slamp told Council that the district needs to expand East High Elementary because of overcrowding in the district. The construction of Bear Creek Intermediate School, underway on the EASD campus but situated in nearby Mount Joy Township, will move 900 students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades there when it opens for the 2011-12 school year.

"It gives us elbow room and space to grow," Slamp told council in March when she went over the district's plans informally.

The East High Street Elementary School addition will include a gym, computer rooms, an art room and small group space. The district plans to complete the addition and then remodel the rest of the school by wing, moving students from one wing into the addition until work is done and then moving the back.

In addition to the new construction, the school district has plans to renovate the athletic fields, including the the football stadium and the field hockey field, from the high school all the way to the Elizabethtown Fairgrounds (which the district owns). Slamp said the district does not want to burden taxpayers with the expense of work on the athletic facilities and will be seeking funding through grants and fundraising.