{"id":26571,"date":"2018-08-21T10:28:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T14:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=26571"},"modified":"2018-08-21T10:28:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T14:28:45","slug":"ucf-seeks-public-input-on-grounds-facilities-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=26571","title":{"rendered":"UCF seeks public input on grounds & facilities plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District is looking for public feedback on the long-term grounds proposal.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 This past spring, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board hired a consultant to recommend the best use of roads, parking areas, and athletic facilities located on the high school, middle school and Unionville Elementary campuses.\u00a0 That presentation was the focus of residents\u2019 comments during Monday\u2019s school board meeting.<\/p>\n

Several residents supported increasing the number of tennis courts.\u00a0 An East Marlborough resident said that varsity tennis matches require at least 7 courts for them to be completed in a reasonable amount of time (the high school currently has 6).\u00a0\u00a0 After-school matches are difficult to complete before darkness falls.\u00a0\u00a0 Another resident added that football games are played in less time than matches due to the limited number of courts.\u00a0 Because other teams are discouraged from traveling here due to this problem, the high school team plays more away games. The resulting early dismissals cause them to miss instructional time, potentially impacting academics.<\/p>\n

Two residents spoke in favor of upgrading ball fields, again citing the current need for more away games as well as student safety concerns.\u00a0 They stated that artificial turf fields are safer for students and provide a better gaming experience due to less rutting and slippery fields due to weather.<\/p>\n

Another resident took the opposite view and did not think that the community needed or wanted to pay for any grounds updates.\u00a0 She felt that residents generally were happy with the current traffic flow and athletic facilities, citing statistics from the consultant\u2019s survey of residents.<\/p>\n

Board President Jeff Hellrung assured the residents that much discussion and feedback will occur before any decisions are made.\u00a0 He said that the Board appreciates the residents who came out tonight, and encourages more community input.\u00a0 Next month, the consultants (K&S) will return with their final presentation that will outline some priorities and rough price estimates.\u00a0 \u201cWe are going to adopt none, some or all of the recommendations depending on what seems to be wise and appropriate for our students and for our community.\u00a0 It needs to be something that serves the needs of our students at a reasonable cost to our taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> reached out to the Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds James Whitesel for clarification on the process.\u00a0 He advised that September\u2019s meeting will include pricing estimates for each piece of the potential projects.\u00a0 Feedback from Administration, Board Members, and the Public will be collected now through November, when a tentative long-term buildings and grounds proposal will be presented.\u00a0 In December, after more feedback is evaluated, the Board will further discuss and generally decide which elements should be included in the long-term 10-year plan.<\/p>\n

Hellrung stated that even after the long-term plan is approved, there is still time for changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have our 10 year plan updated, it doesn\u2019t happen except year by year with our annual budget process.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cThen we debate again in detail and see if our plans are still timely, whether or not they are still affordable.\u00a0 And nothing happens without robust input from the community, the administration and the board.\u00a0 Only then when we approve our (annual) budget will we take any steps in that plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> reported on the K&S grounds master plan proposal presented during the June 11\u00a0work session presentation, found here.<\/a><\/p>\n

In other news, The Board welcomed student representative Winter (Winnie) Elvin.\u00a0 She will attend meetings to report on High School happenings as well as provide valuable feedback to board proposals from the student\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

HVAC plans for Hillendale and the bus depot were approved.\u00a0 The Board also unanimously approved the menu of field trips (including the summer trip to Eastern Europe) for this coming year.<\/p>\n

Next Up:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Curriculum and Instruction meeting at 4:30, and the Work Session at 7:30 on September 17th in room 14 at the District Office, adjacent to the High School.<\/p>\n

They are both open to the public.\u00a0 Additionally, they are broadcasted live (and archived) on the UCFSD web site.<\/p>\n

Board documents:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.boarddocs.com\/pa\/uncf\/Board.nsf\/public<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 This past spring, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board hired a consultant to recommend the best use of roads, parking areas, and athletic facilities located on the high school, middle school and Unionville Elementary campuses.\u00a0 That presentation was the focus of residents\u2019 comments during Monday\u2019s school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[100,6269,10813,10814,1565,614],"class_list":["post-26571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-board-of-education","tag-featured","tag-grounds-and-facilities-plan","tag-playing-fields","tag-schools-2","tag-unionville-chadds-ford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26572,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26571\/revisions\/26572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}