The Conewago Valley school board focused on construction updates and a last-minute shift to move Conewago Township Elementary School students to other buildings during the board’s meeting on Monday evening.
The district recently announced that due to construction issues, all kindergarten through second grade students will attend New Oxford Elementary School (NOE) while all district third-grade students will go to Conewago Valley Intermediate School (CVIS.)
Superintendent Sharon Perry said these changes only apply to the 2026-27 school year.
While Perry acknowledged the abrupt shift generated logistics questions from parents, she assured the board the transition has been well-planned.
Perry had also addressed some of the details surrounding the shift during a study session held on Aug. 3, including plans to keep kindergarten class sizes at no more than 20 students, first and second grade classrooms at no more than 22 students, and third grade classrooms at no more than 25 students.
Perry said that while the district has traditionally had small class sizes, these caps will still stay within recommendations set by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The superintendent also assured the board that no classes would be hosted in open areas such as a stage.
Perry said the CTE construction project has hit a long list of delays ranging from the discovery of an oil line to mold remediation to significant weather-related pauses.
The decision to move was well-timed.
“For example, we heard over the weekend that there was a disconnection of a pipe and a roof and we had water that was flowing into the building,” Perry said. “Gratefully, we didn’t have teachers in classrooms who were there preparing for the beginning of school. The primes as well as our construction manager are working on a new schedule, but overall, work is still progressing and there has been a lot of positive work completion at CTE, although it may not look like that from the outside.”
Another issue was the discovery of mold in tunnels for mechanical, electrical and plumbing equipment. While the initial progress for remediation is done, Perry said she is defending the district from paying the bill she received.
“I’ve been challenging that particular change order due to the fact that there, pre-existing conditions, there was no mold,” Perry said. “My position on behalf of the district is that the means and methods of the construction have enabled that mold to grow. So I did not feel that the district should be responsible to carry that load of that very high change order.”
At this stage it is unclear who will be financially responsible for the bill, though Perry said the district will not bear the cost.
Despite the delays, emptying the building should ultimately move the completion date from August 2027 to June 2027.
Perry praised the district for making the switch to other schools on such short notice. Teachers moved the last of their items on Monday.
“The progress on this has been phenomenal,” Perry said. “I cannot overemphasize the amount of work and effort it has taken from our business department, of our maintenance team, our administrative team, district office team. It has been such an incredible heavy lift to accomplish this within 19 days.”
The district is also beginning renovations to NOE.
Perry said that so far that project is going more smoothly. While workers did hit rock when digging, Perry said the district had anticipated that possibility and purchased insurance that would protect it from impacting Conewago Valley financially.
Other business
The board agreed to hold off on voting for the approval of the Supervision/Evaluation Manual for Professional Staff due to concerns from board member William Getz that the updated version was not uploaded with the agenda.
During the study session the prior week, some board members, including Getz, balked at certain changes that changed “his/her” references to gender-neutral “their.” The board agreed to revert to the prior language; however, while the changes were made, the document attached to Monday’s agenda contained the unapproved revised version.
Despite assurance from the district solicitor that the clarification of the document version would suffice, Getz requested the vote be delayed until September to see the changes reverted before voting.
The board also approved a long list of volunteers and personnel.
Jana Bonds was hired as director of educational technology and innovation for CVSD effective Oct. 12.
Karinne Brown was approved as an assistant principal at NOMS retroactive to Aug. 10.
Dwayne Smith was moved from director of safety back to school security officer effective Aug. 11.
The board had approved making Smith, then an SSO, the director of safety on June 8, retroactive to June 1. Smith was replacing former director of safety and communications Matthew Muller, who retired on July 20.
As of Aug. 13, Smith was still listed as the director of safety on the district website.
The school board briefly discussed the purchase of property for the Adams County Technical Institute.
As of Monday, three districts had voted in favor of purchasing a particular property, with Gettysburg Area School District initially voting against it and deciding to reconsider at its next meeting and Littlestown School District asking for more details.
Perry said ACTI will still complete a traffic study.
ACTI is motivated to use $500,000 in grant funding that will otherwise be lost, Perry said.
“I do know that there is a lot of speculation in the community that we wouldn’t, as the joint operating committee, continue to look at property and that’s simply not true,” Perry said. “If there was a perfect piece of property that presented itself, we could very easily sell that piece of property. So it’s the joint operating committee’s position that it’s an investment and it’s a wise use of funds because it enables us to utilize that $500,000 (of grant funding) and we didn’t want to see that go to waste.”
Perry said the committee keeps the combined districts’ $30 million budget in mind while pursuing grants and fundraising opportunities that could raise the budget significantly.
“We wouldn’t move forward unless we were able, unless we have a plan that we can execute and then seek those grants,” Perry said. “That doesn’t mean we have to build it, either. We can develop the plan, and if we can’t close that gap, then we have to press pause naturally.”
The ACTI joint operating committee will hold a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26 in the ACTI building.
The Conewago Valley school board will hold a study session at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14.
A regular board meeting will be held the following week at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21.
The policy committee of the whole meeting to review the handbook comments will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21.
