Schools

Levering & AMY Northwest; Two Schools, One Site?

Keeping Levering open and moving AMY Northwest to the Ridge Avenue location was discussed at a school district-led meeting Saturday at Roxborough High School.

Could and AMY Northwest co-exist at the same facility?

Levering parents, teachers and its principal think so.

"We would both fit," Levering principal Gina Steiner said at a school district-led meeting Saturday at Roxborough High School.

Find out what's happening in Roxborough-Manayunkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The meeting was the first of several to be held throughout the c. The recommendations are part of a district-wide facilities master plan that aims to, according to acting Superintendent Lee Nunery, focus money in the best places to provide high-quality education to students.

"Part of the plan is to reduce the number of buildings and put the money where it should be," he said, adding that it would cost an estimated $4 billion to repair all of the city's schools. It's money, he said, that is just not available currently.

Find out what's happening in Roxborough-Manayunkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One of the recommendations passed down was to close Levering Elementary and use the building as the new home for AMY Northwest, which is currently located in Mt. Airy.

The recommendation to close the Roxborough school was based on declining enrollment and the fact that the majority of the students attending the school do not live in the school's boundaries.

Currently, 184 students attend Levering, down from 400 eight years ago.

But, Levering teacher John Quirus said closing the school doesn't need to be the only option.

"Levering can hold 600 kids. We're at 30 percent capacity right now," he said. "If we move 200 kids out and move another 200 kids in, we're still only at 30 percent capacity."

Quirus wondered where the major savings is coming form.

"You're saving on rent with AMY but now you're going to have to transport all those students here," he said. "Are you saving or are you just shifting things around?"

According to Danielle Floyd, the school district's deputy for strategic initatives, AMY Northwest has the potential to grow into the space in a way that Levering has not shown.

"When you're in a budget crunch you have to make some hard decision," she said. "The declining enrollment at Levering is significant."

AMY's potential move would save the district $200,000 in rent because the school currently runs out of a rented facility and allow the entire AMY Northwest program to be housed in the same facility.

But AMY parents are concerned about the added distance.

"It already takes my daughter 45 minutes to get to school," Carol Stewart said of her sixth grader. "Now it's going to take her an hour and 45 minutes."

In regards to housing the two schools in one facility, Floyd said it is something that can be looked into.

"As to your counter-offer, we'll have to take that back and look at the numbers and see if the budget and space would work," she said. "We will get back to you on that."

The next few months, Floyd continued, will be a "difficult balance" of planning for the potential closing of Levering and waiting to see what happens.

The next community meeting will be help at Martin Luther King High School Dec. 8 from 6 to 8 p.m.

For more information about the district's recommendations, click here.

 

 


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