Westmont Consolidation

[knowitall]

Other school districts wouldn't want to merge with Westmont because their taxes would go up.

Westmont wouldn't want to merge with other districts because they don't want their kids going to school with the riff raff (i.e., rest of us).

Your "work harder" notion is ridiculous. In the sports that matter it would be the Westmont kids who would struggle to make the starting five, eleven or nine.

[say_oww]

So is it really about about preserving mediocrity, or about not giving the rich another bailout??? 8)

[reugenev]

It will never happen on the hilltop!

[psycho]

Cambria County loses 6% of population. Johnstown population falls by over 12%. School age population is 30% of what it was in 1970. State to cut school funding in half. Westmont to lose $350,000 in funding. Central Cambria to lose $750,000 in funding. Ferndale, CV,CT, Johnstown, Blacklick, Richland, Windber, Shade, Shanksville, North Star, Somerset, Penn Cambria, Northern Cambria, Cambria Heights, etc, etc -- all school district that are shells of their former selves --- will lose millions in state funding. WHERE YOU GOING TO GET THE MONEY???????????????????? You going to raise taxes on Bubba and Jedo on a small fixed income -- again??? You going to hit the dirty rotten undeserving "rich" guy next door? How bout raising taxes just on businesses that are struggling to keep people employed? Let's see how many more houses go up for sale in ole Westy which already pays the highest millage in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Let's see how many other people we can run from our area over the next 9 years (till the next census).

The moneys all gone. There is none. So costs need to come down and with cost control it looks like the era of having a school district per neighborhood is coming to an end. If it does not, we will become West Virginia. in fact, this has been happening already. We must UNITE or this slide will continue. Maintain and perpetuate the "Johnstown Mentality" where envy and idiotic turf protection attitudes control thought processes (this was the basis for the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud in SW West Virginia) and our "community" will devolve into Appalachia. It is happening right before our eyes. We need to erase the archaic, self destructive divisions in our terribly fractured "community". We need to UNITE. The school districts are where we should start -- NOW.

Now go out and ....win one for the gipper!

[El-Moldo]

I think they should cut down all the trees in Westmont which line their streets, sell the wood, and save on leaf removal every fall. That's a financial step in the right direction.

[Opinionguy]

With fuel costs going up, (and likely continuing to go up) here is a question. How many miles per gallon does the average school bus get? It can't be more than 8 mpg tops. So with the extra mileage taking these kids to a central school...is the OVERALL cost really going to go down that much?

Just curious to see a break down of all your proposed savings PYSCHO.

[say_oww]

Yes, that is exactly why it is so much more complex OG. Laurel Valley didn't save anywhere near what they envisioned because of transportation costs. The real solution is that districts need to start tightening belts, and eliminate anything not related to academics.

First, item to cut should not be teacher salaries, but sports. Yes, sports. The hot topic in the media today is teacher bashing. However, the most important thing we need today are good teachers. Pay stratification is absolutely necessary, but staffing reductions are not. Layoffs and furloughs would be a double-whammy, a hit to the students, and also a major hit on the econmoy which is already in recession. If kids want to play sports either they personally foot the bill, or schools require fund-raisers like they do in AAU, and other travel leagues. It works at Catholic schools - just ask Crimson . Take for example cheerleading - all of the local squads raise in the neighborhood of $30,000 each year to fly to Florida or California for national championship competitions, with no contributions from the schools. (You want to talk about an everyone gets a trophy mentality :lol: No knock on cheerleaders, but it is true that there are at numerous organizations that offer National Cheerleading Championships.) The point here is that if you eliminate everything non-educational it will go a long way towards eliminating shortfalls in the budgets.

Also, eliminate new school construction unless absolutely necessary. Who builds a new house because the roof leaks - no one. You fix the roof. Schools should do the same. The argument that why fix when for a little more you can get a new one is flawed. Its also a big reason why we are in the current financial mess.

Back to my first point... Personally, I agree totally with the concept that everyone shouldn't have to pay for your kids' extra-curricular programs in the form of higher taxes. However, if you want it, you can pay for it. I think most people are fine with them paying their share, but when their kids are gone, then they shouldn't have to pay for someone else. The current generation of parents is accustomed for paying for their children's activities, so making such a transition wouldn't be such a big deal in personal financial terms. However, it would be a big news item in the media because our parent's generation never had to do pay for anything extra-curricular. Actually, its their leadership which has bankrupt this system. Its time for us to fix it.

[say_oww]

BTW - Who the **** is the gipper???? :lol:

[DoCoogie]

Westmont wouldn't want to merge with other districts because they don't want their kids going to school with the riff raff (i.e., rest of us).

This is nothing more than an unfounded statement and I promise that you do not speak for 15,000 people.

WHSD taxs have gone up every year but one in the past 20+ years. Do some research - the average household income in WHSD (Westmont Borough, Southmont Borough and Upper Yoder Township) is not that much higher than the surrounding school districts. I believe the last I checked, WHSD's average household income was barely 1.5 times that of GJSD (which isn't just the City, also Stonycreek Township, Lower Yoder Township, part of Geistown Borough.) Meanwhile GJSD gets three times the money that WHSD gets. The folks on the hill should be commended for doing more with less than anybody else around.

"Save Westy", in my opinion, did not represent nearly the majority of residents. It's interesting that their website indicated that their "bright" members would find creative ways to generate revenue and lower taxes after the matter was resolved. The matter was resolved, the developer pulled-out and the group let their website expire and disappear. I've heard of nothing since.

First, this asinine attitude that the WHSD is made up of Randolph and Mortimer Duke clones driving around in Roll Royce's is about far off base as you can get. There are "snobby" attitudes, but I've seen "snobby" attitudes out of Johnstown and Ferndale residents, too. The folks on the hill are frustrated. The taxes continue to go up and most of the folks are not so wealthy as to be apathetic to it. There is this wrong attitude that everyone on the hill is stuck up, has their nose in the air and looks at everyone in the valley as peons. Making unfounded statements like the above simply adds fuel to that fabricated idea and gives people a phony reason to "hate" the residents of WHSD.

Whether by necessity or forced by the state, this area WILL consolidate, municipalities and school districts. The Johnstown metropolitan area is made of of one AAA school, one AA school and three A schools. It's also made of of far too many municipalities. Why didn't the Conemaugh Valley School District residents even want to approve a study into consolidating their five municipalities? What is the point of having three municipalities make up the Westmont Hilltop School District? Why is Dale Borough completed surrounded by the City of Johnstown? Why are Ferndale School District's municipalities all over creation? How about one school district with three high schools make up the entire area? Remember - consolidating school districts doesn't necessarily mean consolidating schools. Consolidating administrative functions can save quite a bit of money.

Kudos to those folks. Sure, it's about the taxes in WHSD, but it's about time people around here start thinking about the future of this entire area. We're shrinking and the smaller you are the less attention you get.

The Westmont Hilltop School Boards obviously supports looking into this. I support it and I've talked to a number of other people who do, too. There are good, hardworking people in this area and these are opinions of some of those 15,000 residents, not the opinions of people who blindly hate those 15,000 people because they think they burn $100 bills in their fireplaces every night while eating lobster and making fun of their maids and chauffers because they live in the valley. It's a shame that someone can hate so many people who they don't even know.

[knowitall]

It's true, mr.j, it's true. Of those 15,000 how many vote, how many attend a school board meeting, how many are more concerned with who is coaching the basketball or football team than what is being taught in the schools? Do you really thing the majority of voters in Westmont would agree to merge with Johnstown?

What's also true is that 75 voters in Daisytown Borough (out of about 105 people who voted in that election) didn't want to share the $90,000 they have in the bank with the riff raff in Franklin and East Conemaugh. Those 75 voters and about 300 or so more in East Taylor Township were able to derail the consolidation of Conemaugh Valley. The majority of voters in Conemaugh Valley wouldn't agree to merge with Johnstown either.

If consolidation happens it will have to be forced and I don't expect it would create as much savings as anyone thinks.