7 days ago
West Mifflin school board examining consolidation plan
The West Mifflin school board says it needs more money, but it doesn't want to raise taxes, so it's thinking about consolidating school buildings to cut costs instead.
District leaders are considering a proposal to put students from kindergarten to sixth grade in the middle school. The high school would hold seventh through 12th grade.
The Titan Cyber Academy would move to Homeville Elementary and Clara Barton Elementary would turn into the district's administration building.
Most agree that consolidation is an idea worth looking into, but others think costs can be cut elsewhere.
"Maybe we don't need as many administrators, maybe we don't need as many teachers. We don't need as many things that happen if we're that small to go to two buildings," one person said at a recent school board meeting.
"This is something that we can control that would have a serious impact," another school board meeting attendee said.
The district's finance director says that they're already running a $1.2 million budget deficit this year, and they've got several expensive maintenance projects to tackle over the next several years.
He thinks consolidating the buildings could save the district up to $2.8 million.
