The Conewago Valley school board narrowly passed the purchase of new elementary school furniture and a property for Adams County Technical Institute on Monday evening following an ongoing debate centered on safety and cost.
Members of the board and public have discussed the furniture allocation for the elementary schools for about a year. Last July, the board discussed the furniture budget already being reduced.
Currently, Conewago Township Elementary and New Oxford Elementary schools are both undergoing renovation and construction projects.
As part of the Act 34 hearing process, a furniture allowance was calculated, with the industry standard set at 7% or more of total construction costs. Prior to the hearing, Perry had already cut that amount to 3.5% in order to reduce costs.
That 3.5% came to be about a $1 million budget, which is not based on an item-by-item shopping list but by using half of the industry standard calculation. The budget sets a ceiling for spending rather than a set amount.
Monday’s vote approved the purchase of third-grade classroom furniture for $181,434.92 for CTE. Board members April Swope, Lindsay Krug, Meredith Miller and William Getz voted against the purchase.
Board president Jeffrey Kindschuh said an inventory was completed and about half of the furniture from CTE will be retained, adding that examples of some of the furniture up for replacement had been moved to the lobby for viewing.
Perry said reusing appropriate furniture is one way the district administration is showing commitment to staying in budget while keeping teachers’ and students’ needs in mind.
“So beyond just the inventory, we did our own assessment of what we believed could be reused and we also got the feedback based upon the people who were living with the furniture in the room,” Perry said. “So we did get all of that feedback as part of the data that helped to inform the reasons for us cutting back on the overall package that’s recommended for the construction package; as I’ve mentioned, we’ve cut that in half and so our estimate is based upon all of those data points.”
On Thursday, Perry clarified to the Gettysburg Connection that the oldest furniture in CTE dates back to the 1950s, with the bulk of it dating from the 1960s through the early 1980s.
CTE itself was built in 1958.
One member of the public, Jamie Fitzpatrick, addressed the board twice, first to ask for a halt on furniture spending until pieces were “itemized and discussed,” then to express disappointment when the purchase passed.
Perry said she would recommend replacing the third-grade classroom first as it will be the first to be done with construction.
“We are suggesting beginning with the third grade because that’s the first area of the building that would be complete and we know that we have to replace furniture,” Perry said. “We want to get it in because we have children back instead of replacing, putting in old furniture, only to have to move old furniture to put in new furniture potentially.”
Perry said furniture is only one part of a larger issue the district faces with replacement cycles, saying that for efficiency, cost-savings and safety Conewago Valley needs to be intentional about keeping ahead of replacements.
“We need to become better at how we’re replacing our equipment and not holding onto things so that a child falls on it,” Perry said.
In this instance, Perry said the issue of replacing furniture includes safety concerns.
“We‘re trying to get the oldest, most weakest furniture out of the line of sight for our students because that is a community expectation,” Perry said. “That is what we heard.”
Although public comment is open to those with opinions across the board, Perry said often communications happen outside the public eye of the meetings.
Perry said some community members support the new furniture and construction projects despite some public comments showing otherwise.
“There is a competing narrative that we’re not hearing through public comment that has come to us,” Perry said. “That’s also not great, either, because we’re only hearing one perspective, but there are multiple narratives happening. Our job is to try to hear all of those different perspectives and come up with a neutral cost-effective recommendation that ethically and morally we can live with, hearing everybody’s perspective.”
Developing replacement cycles for technology, furniture and other equipment may also alleviate some spending concerns as, rather than suddenly facing high costs when something is critically needed, cycles would allow for better transparency around planned spending, according to Perry.
“What I will say, what we’re working really hard on – (business manager) Dr. Scott Fraser and myself and also other administrators in this part of this discussion – is putting everything in the district on a predictable cycle, a replacement cycle that we can expect and we can anticipate, that we can budget,” Perry said. “And it’s more transparent so that we know, ‘Okay, well, what is it this year that we’re replacing?’… Everybody knows it’s coming.”
Perry noted that supply chain issues and inflation also factor in.
“The culture is that we would utilize it until it broke, and that’s not safe, either, because in this day and age, you can’t get that furniture fast enough where before you might have been able to,” Perry said. “The supply chain is disrupted. You need to have the short- and long-range plans for the replacement.”
Perry said the district has a habit of clinging to old equipment.
In July 2025, the board voted to replace a broken 21-year-old stadium surround sound system that had exceeded its lifespan of 15 years. The district had made the system work until a speaker broke last summer and it was determined to be more cost-effective to replace the system for about $42,000, the lowest quote, while also allowing for better interfacing with newer technology.
In that instance, votes echoed Monday’s meeting, with Krug, Swope and Getz voting against replacing the system.
On Monday, Perry said she recognizes budget constraints but also sees a need for district investments to be made.
“I believe in contributing to our community and the betterment of the community, and I’m fortunate enough to have the workforce development background to know how it impacts our economy and increases property values, which is great for our citizens,” Perry said. “That’s the other side of this, that, yes, we have to pay taxes, but excellent schools increase property values and change lives. I’m happy to help support the goals of the community to that end because that’s the feedback that I’ve heard from Conewago Valley School District is that we want to create pipelines, we want to support our students in the most cost-effective way possible, and that’s what we’re attempting to do.”
While on the topic of cutting costs, Krug inquired whether it may be advantageous for the district to install solar panels, particularly given concerns about data centers, rising energy costs and grid issues.
Perry said solar panels were thoroughly considered and determined to be a poor fit for the district, citing maintenance costs for the panels, damage to the roofs, and a lack of adequate roof surface area.
The district’s farm was also considered for solar panels and determined to be a poor fit.
“What you would end up doing is spending a lot of money putting in a fence and you would buy a lot of animals to be eating the grass, because it’s not easily maintained by a maintenance staff at all,” Perry said. “It’s not cost effective in that way, either, for us to hire somebody. So there are so many reasons to not recommend moving forward, but the board did authorize me to study that five years ago, I believe it was.”
The board voted 7-2 to agree to the purchase of land for Adams County Technical Institute (ACTI). Conewago Valley is one of five districts that are part of ACTI and are voting on the purchase.
Swope and Getz cast the opposing votes.
For personnel, the board voted to transfer Joshua Schaffer from his position as principal of New Oxford Middle School to principal of New Oxford Elementary School, retroactive to June 1.
Dwayne Smith’s transfer from school security officer to director of safety for the district, replacing Matthew Muller, who retired, was also made effective as of June 1.
Two coaching assignments for 2026-27 cheerleading and soccer, two class advisor positions and one volunteer were also approved.
Prior to the open meeting, the board met in closed session to discuss personnel.
The board will hold a special meeting from 6-8 p.m. Monday, June 15 in order to discuss and gain more clarity on the escalation process regarding disciplinary actions for students, per request from Getz.
No study session is scheduled for July. A special board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, July 13.
