Moon School District holds town hall regarding proposals to potentially close Hyde Elementary

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Some big changes could be coming to a local school district.

Moon Area School District Superintendent Barry Balaski outlined a number of options for the district at a town hall meeting Wednesday. He cited expected growth over the next decade as the main reason for the change.

Three of those options involved closing one of the district’s five elementary schools - Hyde Elementary.

The school actually closed for a year in 2014. Millions of dollars were spent to reopen it.

Balaski says closing the school will save nearly $10 million in repairs and more.

“There’s also recurring cost. We know that in order to operate Hyde, it’s about $2 million a year,” he said.

Many turned out to the meeting to reject the potential closure.

“We’re always the school that is the first to get picked off. We’ve already been closed once and the community didn’t want it so we were reopened,” Melissa Eiker said. She’s Hyde’s PTO President. “It’s heartbreaking that we are kind of seen as the low end.”

“If they’re only closing a few and Hyde is at the top again, I think people should have a problem with that,” Veronica Peduzzi said. She helps run a community after-school program that serves Hyde students. It focuses on a number of areas including English as a second language. Hyde has dozens of non-native speakers.

“The kids there, for the most part, are underprivileged, underserved,” she said.

Should Hyde close, one possibility is to move the entire student body to Brooks Elementary.

A plan to upgrade the high school and middle school was also discussed, along with major changes to the football stadium and athletic facilities. You can find more information about that here: https://www.moonarea.net/.

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