Parkland School Board unanimously has rejected a request from Lehigh Carbon Community College for pre-approval to acquire real estate.
The vote was taken during Tuesday night’s public board meeting, without any explanation about why all eight board members attending voted no.
After the meeting, Parkland superintendent Richard Sniscak indicated the board previously had discussed LCCC’s proposal in a closed-door executive session, because it involved real estate.
Sniscak and Parkland board president Roberta Marcus said their board does not agree with the procedure LCCC wants districts to approve for speeding up property acquisition — even though Marcus also serves on LCCC’s board of trustees.
The Schnecksville-based community college needs positive votes from nine of its 13 supporting public school districts in Lehigh and Carbon counties to expedite its plan to acquire new properties.
It wants to relocate both its center-city Allentown and Carbon County satellite campuses.
As of Tuesday night, eight of the 13 school districts had voted to support that plan.
Parkland is only the second district to vote against LCCC’s pre-authorization request.
Last week, Panther Valley became the first of the 13 sponsoring districts to vote no, according to information provided by Linda Baker, LCCC’s executive director of college relations.
Baker said the eight districts that already have voted to approve LCCC’s request are Allentown, East Penn, Lehighton, Northern Lehigh, Northwestern Lehigh, Palmerton, Salisbury Township and Whitehall-Coplay.
LCCC needs one more affirmative vote.
The only school districts that have not yet voted on the request are Jim Thorpe, Southern Lehigh and Catasauqua.
Both Jim Thorpe and Catasauqua are meeting Wednesday night.
Catasauqua’s school board was supposed to meet Monday night, said Baker, but that meeting was postponed because of the weather. It is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the school district’s web site.
Baker said Southern Lehigh tabled the matter during its meeting last Thursday.
Why LCCC moving?
The college plans to relocate both satellite campuses because it needs more space.
A new Allentown location will replace LCCC’s Donley Center at 718 Hamilton St., which is almost directly across the street from the new PPL Center multi-purpose arena.
LCCC intends to sell the Donley Center after it acquires another site in Allentown.
The college hopes to remain in center-city. Not only does it need a larger building, but one that has free parking for students.
LCCC also plans to move its Carbon County campus out of a rented wing of Jim Thorpe High School, where it moved from Nesquehoning last year.
Why pre-approval from districts?
Operators of the college want the ability to move quickly to close deals when appropriate real estate becomes available, rather than having to wait for all 13 school districts to vote on potential deals.
LCCC already had set its sights on one property in Allentown, but it was sold before the college could get required approvals from the districts, because the seller did not want to wait that long.
Marcus, president of Parkland’s board, said it would take several months for the school boards in 13 districts to act on such a sale.
Why Parkland voted no
After Tuesday night’s meeting, Sniscak explained Parkland’s board voted against LCCC’s proposed resolution of support because “there wasn’t a process in the resolution for our board to formally approve the sales agreement that the college would enter into.
“We believe the rules of LCCC require them to reach an agreement of sale and then they would ask the sponsoring school districts to vote on that agreement of sale.
“In this case, they are asking for pre-authorization prior to reaching an agreement of sale. We don’t believe we can legally support that because it’s not in their rules and regulations.”
Sniscak said the LCCC request also does not “align” with how school boards are required to vote on real estate purchases under the state’s school code.
He added: “We just have a problem with the process that was in the resolution. We don’t have a problem with the intent. It’s more of a procedural disagreement.”
Marcus agreed, saying: “We felt there was inadequate legal authority to do it. It’s a procedural disagreement, not a philosophical one.”
The superintendent said Parkland fully supports LCCC’s “philosophical rationale” to expedite purchasing property “in a pretty hot real estate environment” in Allentown.
“We support the college’s wishes to pursue either a new building or land for their needs.”
In addition to being president of Parkland’s board, Marcus is vice-chair of LCCC’s board of trustees. She joined her colleagues on Parkland’s board in voting against the college’s request.
After the meeting, Marcus said money already is in LCCC’s budget to relocate both its Allentown and Carbon County satellite campuses.
She noted: “The college cannot own property; the school districts own the property.”
Pre-vote discussion
The only discussion before Parkland’s vote at Tuesday night’s meeting was initiated by a question from board member David Kennedy.
He noted LCCC has stated it will request no additional money from sponsoring school districts to acquire new properties.
“But what assurances do we have that in fact will happen— that they won’t come back and ask for additional capital contributions?” asked Kennedy.
Marcus explained it won’t happen because the money already is in LCCC’s budget for those property purchases.
“So we’ve been paying for that all along?” asked Kennedy.
Marcus said when LCCC made budget presentations to the school districts that financially support it late last year, the college provided information about how much would be spent to relocate the Allentown and Carbon County operations.
When Marcus said there will be no additional capital costs for any of the sponsoring school districts, Kennedy said: “You hesitated when you said capital costs. What about additional costs?”
She said additional costs are not addressed in the resolution prepared by LCCC for approval by the 13 districts.
Said Kennedy: “So there could be other additional costs?”
Marcus indicated operational costs could increase when LCCC moves into larger buildings in Allentown and Carbon County.
She added: “They made it very clear that they wanted the sponsoring school districts to understand it would only be capital costs [that] would be neutral.
“There would be no additional dollars requested from the sponsoring school districts for capital use.”
Marcus explained during the meeting that she is Parkland’s representative on LCCC’s board of trustees.
“I am reporting out what was told to us at the trustee level in order for this board to know what was discussed at the college,” she explained.
Said Kennedy: “Knowing that you sit on that board makes me feel better that we have a good say as a board and our representation is probably heard. I do feel more comfortable about that.”
Immediately after he made that comment, the unanimous vote was cast against the college’s request.
No other school board member commented on LCCC’s request before or after the vote.
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