Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
Murrysville

Citizen group looks for other Franklin Regional towns to join Sloan project appeal

Patrick Varine
Patrick Varine | Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, 8:03 p.m.
A group called “Sloan Project Concerned Citizens” has appealed the approval of the Franklin Regional School District’s Sloan “elementary campus” project.
Patrick Varine | Tribune-Review
A group called “Sloan Project Concerned Citizens” has appealed the approval of the Franklin Regional School District’s Sloan “elementary campus” project.
Above, Sloan Elementary School, off Sardis Road in Murrysville. Franklin Regional officials want to renovate the existing building, construct a new elementary for grades 3 to 5 on the site, and consolidate all its elementary students on one campus.
Above, Sloan Elementary School, off Sardis Road in Murrysville. Franklin Regional officials want to renovate the existing building, construct a new elementary for grades 3 to 5 on the site, and consolidate all its elementary students on one campus.

A group of Franklin Regional residents challenging Murrysville council’s approval of the school district’s Sloan “elementary campus” project want to get the district’s other two towns involved.

Former Murrysville Council President Joan Kearns, a member of the Sloan Project Concerned Citizens group that filed an appeal in late November with the Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court, requested Export council add its voice to those challenging the project.

School district officials plan to renovate Sloan Elementary into a school serving kindergarten through second grade, and build a second school on the property housing grades 3 to 5.

While some Export council members were ready to jump on board at their meeting Tuesday night, solicitor Wes Long urged caution, at least temporarily.

“We ought to do further investigation before we make a determination on being a partner to this appeal,” Long said. “It’s premature at this point to really make that decision.”

Kearns said the attorney representing the citizens’ group felt it was important for a group like Export Borough to join the appeal, “because you are affected very much by this decision.”

Export council members sent a letter to their Murrysville counterparts in early October, urging them not to approve the project.

Kearns also encouraged borough officials to attend the state-mandated Act 34 hearing on the Sloan project, which is set for 6 p.m. this Thursday, Dec. 6, at the Franklin Regional Senior High School auditorium at 3200 School Road in Murrysville.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

click me