School board gears up for new academic year

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on August 14, 2013

It was pretty much a matter of housekeeping and planning for the new school year for the Unionville- Chadds Ford School Board directors during their Aug. 12 workshop — that and the swearing in and welcoming of their new member Leticia Flores

DeWilde.

Flores DeWilde replaced Frank Murphy on the board last month. She was one of six candidates who volunteered to serve through November when the public will vote on Murphy’s regular replacement

Trees and two-way radios dominated most of the discussions.

Rick Hostetler, the director of buildings and grounds briefed the board on the need to upgrade radios used in each of the district’s six buildings. He said 60 to 62 of the 77 units currently in use don’t meet Federal Communications Commission standards.

“We’re out of compliance,” Hostetler said.

That current crop of two-ways consists of 2-watt units that don’t transmit very far and are on wrong frequencies. He suggested replacing the lot with new 5-watt, 5-channel units that would give the district much more flexibility.

With them, he said, the high school, middle school and Unionville Elementary School would have radios with dedicated frequencies, while the other three elementary schools could repeat those frequencies with another channel dedicated for emergency use.

Hostetler estimated the cost to replace all the radios at $18,000.

Trees and tree planting came up when Hostetler updated the board on the stormwater management project at Hillendale Elementary School. He said the work was almost complete and that, even before that completion, runoff has been dramatically reduced despite the amount of rain we’ve had this spring and summer.

About 300-350 trees were scheduled to be planted as part of the reforestation phase of the project, but Hostetler said 600 would arrive by tree planting day, Oct. 12.

An estimated 100-150 volunteers are expected to do the planting and it could become part of an Eagle Scout project.

Other pre-year projects, including building inspections are wrapping up and the schools will be ready for opening day on Aug. 26.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.