Why the Rush to Replace Patton Middle School?

A tale of hidden costs and exaggerated concerns

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary

The True Cost of Replacing Patton MS

Is a New School Really Necessary?

The Biased Financial Analysis

UCFSD Aims for a “Taj Mahal”

The Board Seeks to Avoid Public Engagement

About the authors:

Lindsay Tucker is a parent with four children in the District.

Mark Stookey has lived in UCFSD since 1990. All three of his children attended District schools.

This site was created by ordinary school district residents, just like you, who are investing their own time and money to raise public awareness. They are concerned that the Superintendent and School Board are trying to push through a quarter of a billion dollars of spending over 35 years before the public learns about the cost, the flimsy rationale, and the alternatives.

The True Cost of Replacing Patton Middle School

How Much Will it Cost the Average Taxpayer?

Superintendent Sanville and Finance Director Deady have consistently stated that replacing the Charles F. Patton Middle School (CFPMS) will cost the average taxpayer $42 / year.1 That’s a blatant lie. The actual cost is over $27,500 per taxpayer over 35 years.

Sanville and Deady are deceiving the public six different ways when they promote the $42 per year number.

  1. The cost increases $42 per year for 9 years, until it reaches a $378 increase per year. Sanville and Deady use the false claim of “$42 per year every year” to avoid stating the full $378 increase. Notice in the Feasibility Study FAQ, they bury the words “$42 per year every year” in point #7 of an 8 point explanation. In presentations, they’ve admitted that $42 compounds for 9 years, as explained in Sanville’s February 14th explanation of the cost per taxpayer. At the very end of an opaque 5 page explanation they state that it is a “$42 increase per year each year for 9 years”. Over those 9 years, the $42 per year tax increase becomes $378 per year but you won’t see $378 mentioned in any UCFSD communications.
  2. Having deceived the public with their false claims they are content to let board members and public repeat the $42 per year lie. Watch how Deady and Sanville stay silent as Board Member Anderson repeats the lie at 2:35:50 of the February Board Meeting. This is one example but the $42 lie has been repeated at each board meeting on this topic since December 2024.
  3. They hid the fact that much of the new cost is offset by savings from paying off existing debt.   As they’ve stated, $801 of the $8519 in school taxes (paid by the average UCFSD taxpayer) is applied toward debt service, much of this for UHS. The District is on schedule to pay off the UHS debt in over the next several years, with a roughly $400 reduction per household by 2032 and a $600 reduction by 2033. Therefore, the eventual annual cost of replacing CFPMS is the $378 per year increase, plus foregoing the roughly $500 tax reduction from paying off the UHS debt, for a total cost of $878 per taxpayer, per year.  Not surprisingly, once the District’s error is corrected, the annual cost per household maps closely with the $800 calculated above.
  1. They’re creatively financing the replacement of Patton Middle School over 35 years. Lower payments up front lead to higher payments over time. Their creativity is born out of a requirement that forces a taxpayer referendum if costs increase above PA’s Act 1 index of school inflation. By extending the debt maturities, they can reduce the amount paid each year to avoid exceeding the index. The drawbacks of this approach are taxpayers are on the hook to spend more money on financing than on the actual building. Taxpayers will be required to finance a new middle school until 2062.
  2. They’ve ignored all of the maintenance costs. The building will be over 30 years old before the debt is paid off in 2062. To make $120 Million seem more palatable, they’re comparing it to major upgrades and 30 years of maintenance of CFPMS, while assuming their brand new building will come with a 30 year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
  3. The District’s creative debt service plan estimates that it will cost taxpayers $140 Million to finance $120 Million over 35 years. A back-of-the-napkin calculation shows that the average share for each of the district’s ~9400 taxpayers2 is ($260 Million / 9400 =) $27,500, amortized over 35 years.

Does the estimate of $42 a year look like an honest representation of the cost to you? If not, reach out to let the School Board know what you think by emailing them at ucfboard@ucsfd.net

Links:

Would you believe that the people hiding the cost of a new building would overestimate the cost of maintaining CFPMS to make replacing it look more palatable?

And are all of the concerns they’ve cited with Patton Middle School really necessary and urgent?

Footnotes

1 See Question #2 of the Q&A on the UCFSD Middle School Feasibility Page. Or listen to any of the board meetings or working sessions where cost has been brought up. Example: board member’s question at 1:06:00 of the February working meeting. Then there’s Sanville’s 5 page explanation of the cost impact in response to residents’ claims that the $42 / year number was a lie.

2 Based on the District’s number of taxpayers derived from their statement that the average taxpayer pays $8500 toward an annual $80 MM of real estate taxes collected. ($80MM / $8500 per taxpayer = 9411 taxpayers) in Sanville’s February 14th MS Replacement Tax Impact communication.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *