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<p>FAIRVIEW TWP. &#8212; About a hundred parents of Crestwood students gathered at King&#8217;s restaurant Wednesday night to discuss their concerns about proposed teacher layoffs and district spending they consider frivolous.</p><p>Raymond Joseph, of Citizens for the Preservation of Quality Public Schools, told parents: &#8220;District funds are limited. Education and safety should be our priority.&#8221;</p><p>Kim Spath, Rice Township, parent of two students at Rice Elementary, agreed.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of money that could be spent on improving the safety and infrastructure of district buildings,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They should fix a roof before they build a field house.&#8221;</p><p>The controversial field house is expected to cost $1.6 million, and some at the meeting described it as a &#8220;glorified locker room.&#8221; But district officials have defended the expense even at a time when money is tight.</p><p>Spath also commented on the district&#8217;s possible &#8220;banding&#8221; of its two elementary schools, so that one building would house kindergarten through third grade and the other fourth through sixth.</p><p>&#8220;They haven&#8217;t even done any kind of feasibility study on restructuring the schools,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It might save money, but we don&#8217;t know that it will.&#8221;</p><p>She also expressed concerns about the possible elimination of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) classes.</p><p>Kelly Ross-van Den Berg, who serves as president of Fairview Elementary&#8217;s PTA, was worried about how the potential upheaval could impact students.</p><p>&#8220;My daughter is in seventh grade. She wants to be an astronaut. She&#8217;s always wanted to be an astronaut,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m afraid when she goes to apply to the college she needs to apply to, she won&#8217;t get in.&#8221;</p><p>Ross-van Den Berg deemed the projected field house &#8220;an ancillary building,&#8221; unnecessary for quality education.</p><p>&#8220;We need to spend our money on existing structures,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Joseph said the field house &#8212; financed as part of a 20-year bond &#8212; will put an unnecessary burden on taxpayers for the long term.</p><p>&#8220;In 20 years, we&#8217;ll have parents saying, &#8216;We need money to fix the field house,&#8217; and the original debt won&#8217;t even have been paid off.&#8221;</p><p>Joseph encouraged those gathered to attend Thursday night&#8217;s school board meeting so their elected leaders know what they want.</p><p>&#8220;They are our representatives. We supported some of them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I believe that some of them are with us on these issues.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Crestwood parents picket outside the high school Wednesday while Superintendent Joseph Gorham meets with the media inside. The parents were not allowed at the superintendent&#8217;s media session. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_TTL041918Crestwood1-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Crestwood parents picket outside the high school Wednesday while Superintendent Joseph Gorham meets with the media inside. The parents were not allowed at the superintendent&#8217;s media session. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Geri Gibbons</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div>

Crestwood group gathers to discuss concerns with district spending