The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

March 9, 2010

UPDATE: School officials are no-shows at merger talk

By Courtney L. Anderson

SHARON — Sharon school director Christopher Gavin likened the process of investigating consolidating districts to the scientific method: You start out with a hypothesis, gather information, analyze it and come to a conclusion.

But if you don’t make it past the first step, you’ll never be able to truly test your theory.

And so it goes with Gavin’s push to look at merging Sharon, Farrell, Hermitage, Sharpsville and West Middlesex school districts.

In January, Gavin mailed letters to superintendents and school board presidents in the five Shenango Valley school districts.

Gavin said he had some responses from other school leaders, but when they met Feb. 23 at Sharon, no one showed up except for Sharon board members.

The handful of Sharon school directors waited about a half hour before they realized no one else was coming.

“It still bothers me that there’re people in education … who don’t want to get the information,” Gavin said.

He added that if leaders aren’t interested in learning about consolidation, then maybe they’re afraid of the answer.

Gavin for two years has brought up consolidation several times and got as far as contacting an organization about studying it and getting local leaders together to talk about it.

A number of board and community members from all the schools met in October, and it seemed folks were more on board with the idea than many had initially thought.

They talked about how consolidating all or some of the districts, which all have declining populations and spiking costs, could save taxpayer money, draw more people and business to the valley and improve the quality of educational programs for the youth.

Though it seems the interest isn’t there, Gavin still thinks it’s a worthwhile cause.

“I’m too stubborn to shut up, so I’m not done yet,” Gavin said.

“I can’t do it by myself,” Gavin said, adding that if people in the Shenango Valley want to see progress toward consolidation, they should contact their school boards.

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