Grit
March 27, 1966
Reaction Pleasant to Cost of School

Compiled by Lou Hunsinger Jr.

A “pleasant surprise” in public reaction to the announced $10,099,910 cost of Williamsport Area School District’s proposed new high school has been expressed by Dr. Clyde H. Wurster, district superintendent.

Explaining that the high cost of the project was an “unusual experience” for the community. Dr. Wurster said that virtually no bitter reactions to the undertaking have been called to his attention.

He attributed the lack of opposition to a “general raising in the level of appreciation for education and willingness to spend money both for the children of the area and for the future prosperity that such a project inevitably brings about.”
Even the school board, he said, was somewhat shocked at the high-cost estimate because there had been no actual experience in dealing with such a large project.

Two factors, he continued, have raised costs of the modern school. Most important is the greater expense of labor and construction material, he said.

“Another thing that most people tend to not realize,” Dr. Wurster noted, “is that so many more facilities are necessary because of the school size.” He said that such items as swimming pools and language laboratories have become “almost standard equipment” in the modern school.

The school board has announced that the actual construction could get underway by April 1967, and be completed by 1969. Dr. Wurster foresees no change in the schedule, despite the large cost of the project.

Plans for the proposed junior high school to be built in Loyalsock Township have not been developed enough to be affected by the high cost of the new high school, he said.

“This could change,” the superintendent asserted, “if the prosperity of the area increases enough to create overpopulation in the present schools. Then the new junior high school would have to come quicker than we now anticipate.”