Plans for a new Greenwood Elementary School moved a step closer to reality after the Feb. 7 Kennett Township meeting.
Township supervisors approved the conditional land development plan to build a new 105,000-square-foot building on the same property as the current school at 420 Greenwood Road. The township’s planning commission voted to recommend approval for the supervisors.
Diane Hicks, Kennett Township’s director of planning and zoning, said the existing school, built in 1962, would remain operational during the early stages of construction.
The plan, according to Hicks, calls for “a one-story wing with a two-story classroom wing behind it” and enough room for “660 students and 80 staff members.” Currently, the school can handle 553 students.
New Supervisor Pat Muller said she was serving on the planning commission when it was first presented to that group.
“I think it’s going to be a really wonderful place for kids,” she said.
In December, the Kennett Consolidated School District asked the township for four waivers, including one that would allow them to submit a combined preliminary and final land development plan for consideration and one that would require sidewalks along part of Greenwood Road.
Other business
• Supervisors appointed township Finance and HR Director Amy Heinrich as interim township manager. She will be filling the role of interim manager, township secretary, and right-to-know officer while the supervisors search for a replacement for Eden Ratliff, who left at the end of January for a municipal job in Virginia.
Heinrich said that members of the finance team staff are doing more of her finance and HR duties so there won’t be a conflict with one person handling everything, as was the case with former township Manager Lisa Moore who was convicted on charges of embezzling township funds.
“We’ll do a good job of getting through this,” she said. “I do have four other members of my team taking a lot of the things that I did. There are two to three eyes on absolutely everything that happens with the township.”
• The board also approved a $65,000 contract with the Brandywine Red Clay Alliance for land management services this year. Part of the contract includes managing Spar Hill trails, trees, mowing, and more, and another part includes work at Barkingfield Park.
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
