The notion of consolidating the northern and southern ends of the Ligonier Valley School District continues to prove as dividing as the Mason-Dixon line.
The school board Monday narrowly approved authorizing administrators to further explore one of eight proposed building utilization options.
Administrators had asked the board last month to select which options it would like them to investigate.
But last night, a motion by school Director Donna Zimmerman to approve more study on the two options that had been most favored by the board -- options 4 and 8 -- died for lack of a second.
Rather than letting the issue drop, school Director Irvin Tantlinger moved for option 5, which passed in a 5-4 vote with support from directors Daniel Resenic, Victor Sansing, Martin Stahl and board President Bonnie Springer.
That proposal calls for moving all senior high students to Ligonier Valley High School, just outside of Ligonier, and relocating the district's administrative offices from the former Pennsylvania Game Commission building in Ligonier to Laurel Valley Middle-High School in St. Clair Township.
"This isn't saying that we're going to do it," Tantlinger said. "We're just asking for a study."
"I believe that the students and taxpayers of this district deserve some sort of in-depth study or analysis of the financial and educational impacts of one of these plans," agreed Resenic.
Zimmerman and school directors Carol Henderson, Dorothy Boring and Carl Fabrizio opposed the plan.
Henderson noted that at least two consolidation studies have been completed over the years, including the most recent in 1993.
That $35,000 analysis was done by a professional consultant "and took more than a year to complete," Henderson said, noting that "it recommended a central, neutral site" with significant transportation costs.
The current study will be completed by district administrators over the next two months, and findings will be reported back to the board.
"These individuals already have a lot of work to do, and if they have time to do this, then we're not running our administration right," Henderson argued.
"Studies have been done, and we have paid for them," Zimmerman added. "I don't see how asking our administration to do it again is going to help our kids."
Boring said she would not support "anything that does not treat both ends of the district fairly, and this option just takes the (Laurel Valley) high school and moves it to Ligonier."
"When the adults can't come together, how can we expect the children to do so?" asked resident Mary Lou Walker.
"Through the years, I have been an opponent of consolidation, but this battle has gone on long enough," said Walker, who now supports exploring a consolidation plan.
Several other residents spoke out against consolidation, citing longer bus rides, higher transportation costs and sacrificing the benefits that having two high schools afford students.
"I don't know what's best," Walker added. "But I hope the board and community can come together to see what improvement consolidation can bring. And I mean educational improvements, not just financial."
