Parents mixed on Central Cambria School Board’s decision to move elementary students

CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — Parents and community members were left with mixed feelings after Monday night’s Central Cambria School Board meeting where the board ultimately decided to transition students out of Jackson Elementary.

Third through fifth-grade students will now be moving to Cambria Elementary School next year, while kindergarten through second-grade students from Jackson Township will remain at Jackson Elementary for now.

This all started with a tax error in which a bad appraisal from a New Hampshire firm hired by the county overestimated how much tax revenue the district should be making from CPV Fairview Energy in Jackson Township. An appeal by the energy company found that the appraisal was five times the actual amount, leading to the district owing them more than $3 million.

Several parents and community members walked out of the school board meeting upset with the school board’s decision. The board hired a firm toward the end of 2023 to do a feasibility study into how they could cut costs and ultimately that data is what Superintendent Jason Moore said led to the decision.

“The big thing is probably the birth rates. I think a lot of people look at those enrollment projections and think that it is kind of smoke and mirrors but it’s not,” Moore said. “If you look at the next five years it is actual live birth rates in Cambria County, specifically within our school district.”

Central Cambria is still the only school district in Cambria County with multiple elementary schools now at a limited capacity. It’s something that representative with residents for Jackson Elementary Carl Phillips is not happy about.

“To have an excuse to say that everyone else is doing it. Well, we’re not everyone else,” Phillips said. “You have to take this on a case-by-case basis and I think you really didn’t give us a very good explanation.”

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Moore added the full closure of the school still isn’t on the table right now.

“There is no plan to close Jackson Elementary School. The plan is to keep that for K to 2 as long as possible,” Moore said.

Moore explained that no teachers will be losing their jobs as a result of the move and that kids will still be recieving the same education.

“The kids whether they’re form Jackson Township, Ebensburg Borough, Cambria Township, they’re going to get a top-notch education. That’s what we can promise,” Moore said.

According to Moore, they will be working to help integrate Jackson Elementary students and their parents to Cambria Elementary. They already plan to have second through fourth graders visit the school for a field day and get a tour before the end of the school year and are planning to have parents visit the school and get a closer look at where their kids will be taught next year over the summer.

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