''When you destroy history, you destroy yourself,''
said Mary Pongracz,
a south Bethlehem activist and retired Broughal teacher.
Board members said they share the public's concerns for history. But
tearing down Broughal is the only way to fit a state-of-the-art school
and an athletic field, two features the district's other three middle
schools already have.
''When it comes to the choice between a
historic building and one child, I will choose the child,'' Director
Charlene Koch said.
But Director Loretta Leeson, siding with the majority view of the
taxpayers at the meeting, chided Koch.
Leeson said the board is not shortchanging students because the board
still plans to build the school. Leeson said the board should listen to
residents who want to use the building for other purposes, such as a
community center, because recreation space is limited on the South Side.
Director Rosario ''Rosie'' Amato, Facilities Committee chairwoman, said
the board has tried to come up with alternative plans. ''We looked at a
lot of options,'' he said.
Superintendent Joseph Lewis said he
recently met with two Lehigh University officials, both of whom said
Lehigh has no interest in helping the district with its building plans
or saving the existing Broughal.
The Facilities Committee
meeting was the first in which board members were to discuss public
input gathered at the Act 34 meeting held Dec. 11. Act 34, a state
Department of Education requirement commonly referred to as the Taj
Mahal Act, mandates school districts hold a public hearing on
construction or major additions.
As part of the law, a school
district must wait 30 days after the hearing to begin construction work
associated with the state-approved plan.
On Dec. 26, the
district started salvage work under a $77,140 contract to see what
artifacts could be saved and used on the new design. The district
stopped the salvaging the next day because masonry crumbled.
But because the district started the work within the 30-day moratorium,
a citizen complained to the state.
Sheila Ballen, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Education,
told The Morning Call that the Education Department would investigate
the complaint because Act 34 guidelines say no construction can occur
during the moratorium.
The Act 34 issues resulted in nearly
two dozen residents attending Monday's meeting. Of the 10 residents who
spoke, all but one said they wanted to see the existing building
preserved.
''You had an Act 34 hearing,'' Bethlehem resident
Peter Crownfield said. ''Any act of removing artifacts ? before the
30-day period seems to create a perspective of disregard.''
On Monday, Lewis said the Department of Education cleared the district
of wrongdoing. Ballen could not be reached for comment.
The Act 34 violation is the latest snag in the 12-year debate on
whether to build a middle school in south Bethlehem. The former
administration of retired Superintendent Thomas Doluisio passed on the
decision when it started the district's new building and renovation
projects in the 1990s.
In 2005, Lewis and the school board
ignited a fire storm when they weighed an offer from Lehigh University
to sell the 4.2-acre Broughal site to the school for $1.9 million and
land at the university's Mountaintop Campus to build a $30 million
middle school there.
At the time, Lehigh did not guarantee it would save Broughal or raze it
to use the land for other purposes.
Under pressure from South Side residents, the school board in June 2005
voted 5-4 to reject Lehigh's offer and build a school at the existing
site for about $40 million.
Costs now have risen to an
estimated $45.5 million, partly because an underground garage is
planned and other added features. The district plans to solicit bids to
begin construction in March.
steve.esack@mcall.com
610-861-3619