March 19, 2014

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District will be spending some money and looking for ways to save some money during the next few years.

On the spending side is an update to the district’s educational technology plan that could increase spending by more than $200,000 during the next three years.

A BYD — Bring Your own Device — policy, which took over for a plan to buy iPads for all students, will be coupled with another concept, LMS, or Learning Management System.

Both will enable students to access information from the Internet, information to which teachers can add.

Devices such as iPads will be provided for students who don’t have their own.

The move brings with it the need to revamp the district’s digital infrastructure to make accessing the Net and generating local intranets easier and more robust.

Changing that infrastructure comes with a cost. According to Director Kathy Do, the change will cost an additional $35,000 in the 2014-2015 school year, but more than $100,000 in each of the next two academic years. The increase for next year will be included in the upcoming budget deliberations, Do added during the March 17 School Board meeting at Chadds Ford Elementary School.

Other business

• Do was the lone “no” vote when the board voted 7-1 to work with School Operations Services Group Inc. to outsource custodial help on a test basis.

The pilot program runs through the end of this school year and will be evaluated at that time. Board President Vic Dupuis said members might not have enough information to properly judge the program by the end of June.

The board capped outsourcing to 10 percent of the affected departments. For the custodial department, that means four positions could be outsourced. That cap already exists for Personal Care Assistants.

While only one board member voted against the decision, others are taking a wait and see approach.

Carolyn Daniels voted yes, but added that she thinks it will show the importance of keeping the custodial staff in-house. She referred to custodians as the “first line of defense” when there are problems at a school.

Do cited talks with members of law enforcement who say that custodians are the first to respond to a crisis and their knowledge of the school building and the students and staff can be critical.

“I don’t like using outsourced custodians only to save money,” Do said.

Dupuis added that the idea behind the pilot program is to determine whether custodial service can be improved, not just to see if money can be saved. It’s a matter of understanding options, he added.

• The board voted 8-0 to award a contract bid for one 72-passenger bus and four nine-passenger vans to Wolfington Body Co. The net cost is $218,808.

There are some major changes planned for the AMC Theater in Painters Crossing shopping center and the Chadds Ford Zoning Hearing Board readily approved one minor change.

David Martino — of Martino Signs — told the Zoning Board members that the theater is looking to change its signage, but that the total area of the new signs will be of lesser square footage than what currently exists.

The sign along Route 202 will remain the same size, but it will now read: AMC Dine In Theaters, Movies, Menus and More.

Also, the reader board, the large sign showing movie titles and times above the entrance will be removed. Other signs will also be changed but the total area will be less than what it is now.

The text for the new sign indicates the other changes planned for the theater. It will remain a multiplex but, according to Martino, each of the individual theaters will be changed to dining areas that show movies. There will tables, a wait staff, adult beverages and luxury seating.

Martino also said he thinks the renovations will begin in May.

The zoning board approved the sign change 3-0.

Other business

The board continued until at least April an application from Olde Ridge Village to allow for a caretaker unit in the center.

Owner Dominic A. Pileggi testified that the shopping center was originally zoned B-Business in 1982 and that a caretaker unit was allowed as a by-right use at the time. The zoning has since changed to PBC-Planned Business Center, where a live-in unit isn’t permitted.

Pileggi himself lived in the suite from 1982 to 1990 while he served as the caretaker.

Since then, he said, the unit was briefly used as a doctor’s office, but it was designed and built as an apartment and that no structural changes or renovations were made to alter that use.

He added that each of his 25 tenants like the idea of having an on-site caretaker and he submitted an exhibit with their signatures to that effect.

Board Chairman Bob Reardon questioned whether the use would still be legal now, years after the zoning was changed and the unit ceased being used as a living quarters.

Zoning Solicitor Frank Sbandi said it should still be permitted.

“If it was legal then, it’s legal now,” Sbandi said.

Board members still agreed to postpone a decision until they could, if possible, verify that the residential use really was legal in 1982. They will reconvene in April or May depending on the number of other applications.