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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
