There is no justifiable reason to close George Bancroft Elementary.

Right off the bat, we all know how important neighborhood schools are.  They are the linchpin of a community, the glue that holds it together.  Bancroft, like many schools, serves as a place for families to gather and interact and access is simple, as it is the ONE neighborhood school that doesn’t require any bussing.  It’s a tight-knit community in Weston Field and to close this building would be devastating.  We all know that the last thing any area needs is a dead building.  Look at how long it took Lincoln-Jackson to be sold.  Rehabilitation has only started in the past few months.  This follows nearly a decade of being an eyesore that wrecked property values and invited vandalism and mischief.

Who wants that?  Evidently, some Board members.

This is why we must do two important things to save Bancroft: organize, and present the facts.

I’ll start with the facts.

The district has provided shifting explanations about why it needs to go, from the expense of repairs to the reduction of footprint.  These are dubious, and I’ll break it down for you.

• The district claimed infrastructure costs, pegged at $1.9 million, make the building too much of an expense to repair.  Many of these costs are based on 2012 estimates from then-Operations Manager Jeff Brazil.  This information is not reliable.  Not only that, lots of it is aesthetic and lots of it pertains to ADA upgrades, which are not actually required.  (They’d be lovely, but they are not mandated.)
• After the Bancroft PTA inquired about this, the district began saying this is about reducing the footprint.  Aside from the fact that the Admin Building should be the first place to “reduce footprint” (as well as the Whittier Annex and Monticello, which we rent), this is going to create a long term problem.  Why?
  • The City of Scranton has been growing, which means its school population will continue to do so, particularly when the pandemic ends.  Look at real estate, home prices are skyrocketing.  It’s easier for somebody from New York or New Jersey to work from home in Scranton and pay Scranton prices than to live in an expensive environment.
  • Students who went to cyber-charters because of the pandemic (and likely the district’s abysmal failure at providing Chromebooks when school began) will inevitably return.
  • If the district does indeed grow, there won’t be enough space to accommodate students and we will have a major problem.  This leads to my next major point.
• The space study the district did is flawed.  No building has the available space that the district claims.  First, there are contractual caps on class size, but more importantly, special education students are mandated to have more square footage than regular education students.  This came up when I was on the Board and went nowhere, but the district does not have the room that it claims.
• Further, if this is about reducing footprint, truly, let me propose an alternative to closing Bancroft that would save significantly more money:  sell the admin building and move administration into available space in the buildings (then, as a bonus, they can see the people their decisions affect).

There is also a major problem with bussing for Bancroft.  Superintendent McTiernan said these children will be bussed.  Head on over to Google Maps and do a route from Bancroft to Tripp.  Guess how long it is?  1.5 miles.  So these kids will be walking.  Right across Main Ave and under the viaduct.  Five-year-olds.  1.5 miles twice a day.  Guess how many sex offenders live along that route?  30.  How in God’s name is this okay with people?

“It’s policy” is a bullshit argument.  The Board sets policy, the Board can change it (just as it can vote to save Bancroft, if it wants).

More considerations:

• The Laceworks will be populated with people in the next few years.  Those kids would go to Bancroft.  Where are they all going to be going if that school is gone?
• How many students will we lose to charters because of this?  Only 4 regular ed students is around $50,000 of loss.  Only 2 special ed students equals that amount.  So how many dollars are we saving by closing this building?  If we lose a dozen or two kids, that savings is wiped out.  And we have to pay to bus them if they go to Howard Gardner!  Or a private Catholic school!
• Ty Holmes, who is running for Scranton School Board, pointed out that there needs to be a risk assessment done before making a dramatic decision like this.  Did the district do so?  No.  But our kids deserve it if you’re going to potentially put them in harm’s way.
• Sean McAndrew has pointed out that we aren’t even having in-person meetings at this point.  We should do one at Bancroft and invite the public to speak.  Let directors hear the voices and see the faces of those impacted by their decisions.

This is the worst of it all.  According to the district, Robert Morris needs more repairs ($2.4 million), but that’s not on the chopping block (nor should it be).  The clear difference between Bancroft and most other schools in need of upgrades: its ESL population is the highest in the district (~50%), it is very racially diverse, and it is the district’s most impoverished school.  Why target this school?  It’s population doesn’t have a voice.

We should not be targeting the most vulnerable and voiceless among us.

And guess what, it’s happening in a pandemic!  The most unprecedented year of ALL OF OUR LIVES!  Why are we making such a drastic decision right now?  Why would we choose to upend so many lives at a time when they’ve already been upended?  This Board is shaking the foundations of families who depend on it.

The district has the money to save Bancroft.  It got $6 million from the first stimulus, $17.4 from the second stimulus, and it is about to receive $36 million from the stimulus that was passed last week.

There is no reason to close Bancroft.  What we are seeing is callous indifference.  And it doesn’t need to be these way.

There’s a Zoom meeting on Tuesday at 7 PM for all interested parties who want to get involved and save this school.

Hopefully I’ll see you there!