The Lewisburg Area School Board is consid¬ering three options for a Master Facility Plan. One option involves developing a large, remote facility on Newman Road as a high school.
There are two significant concerns with de¬veloping the Newman site, permanent operating cost increases and decreased student safety.
On Sept. 9, the school board will be presented with cost estimates for execution of all op¬tions; however, taxpayers in the district should be aware that these estimates do not include changes to the district’s operating costs.
Lewisburg High School students are already highly competitive academically and as ath¬letes.
The Newman site is nearly 30 times larger (204 acres) than the current high school, and the operating costs associated with this size increase have not been addressed.
Such a large site must result in permanent increases in maintenance and operating costs for the district.
While estimates suggest that the student pop¬ulation will increase, no estimate suggests that the increase warrants a site this large.
Another change to operating costs will result from busing increases.
Developing the site on Newman Road will increase travel for 70 percent of the students. It seems unavoidable that this site, which is so far removed from most of the students, will result in significantly higher busing costs, and those increases will be wasted because the temptation to drive to the remote site will be higher leaving buses emptier.
My final concern is student safety. Car ac¬cidents claim the lives of more high school students than anything else.
The Newman site will lead to more students driving longer distances, and this type of in¬crease, particularly on rural roads, results in more fatalities and injuries.
My greatest concern is that developing the Newman site will lead to one or more families suffering a loss that cannot be measured.
Mary Howe,
East Buffalo Township
Letters
Fears over school site
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Faith and public funds
NetSummary
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Bad plan
NetSummary
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Pay for home care
On Dec. 15, President Barack Obama announced a proposed rule that would extend federal minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers. This is an exciting development for home care workers across the country.
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Public investment
Public investment? Pennsylvania's funding of our local schools is a crying shame. Sure, times are tough, but the state managed to come up with $10 million for Bucknell University, a private school, to have a new bookstore in downtown Lewisburg. I'm still not sure how Bucknell wrangled that deal or why a private university is entitled to public funding.
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Ill-conceived measure
Ill-conceived plan. It is imperative that motorists drive safely and courteously when approaching bicyclists. The only problem with the new bicyclist law requiring motorists to allow four feet of distance between their cars and the bicyclists is that this will place the car in the opposing travel lane or require it to cross the yellow line in a no-passing zone.
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Heroic workers
I was astounded when I saw Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011's headline "Workers tackle robber over $603".
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Cell phone ban
Last week I was reading "Cell ban tough to enforce" in The Daily Item and it was very controversial.
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Worth $603?
The article on Dec. 20 in the edition of The Daily Item about the Dollar Tree robber caught my interest.
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Alarming ailment
In the Dec. 20, 2011 issue of The Daily Item, I read the article "Childhood disorder bolsters research."
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Public obligation
As part of her argument for home schooling, "Studying in Pajamas", Jan. 20, Joanna Wert dismisses public schools and "the majority of American workers" with a few condescending generalizations. She goes on to extol her own children's virtues and accomplishments, and then lists famous people whom she claims were home-schooled.
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Faith and public funds
