Tag Archives: Harrisburg School District

Proposed STEAM charter school launches petition drive to reverse school board denial

March 4, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

The proposed PA STEAM Academy would move into this building, Midtown 2, in Harrisburg.

A group denied permission to open a new public charter school has begun a petition drive to overturn the decision of the Harrisburg school board.

The board of the proposed PA STEAM Academy needs to gather valid signatures from 1,000 city residents, 18 years and older, to force the matter to the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas.

“The bottom line is—what’s in the best interest of the kids?” said Susan Kegerise, a former Susquehanna Township school district superintendent and now a member of the proposed charter school’s board. “We’re going to keep going because it’s in the best interest of the kids.”

PA STEAM Academy has until mid-April—60 days following the city school board’s unanimous denial of its charter application on Feb. 19—to gather the signatures for its appeal. If the court validates the petitions and issues a decree, the matter goes to the state Department of Education’s seven-member Charter School Appeal Board, which will make a final decision to affirm or overturn the school board’s decision.

To coordinate the petition drive, PA STEAM has contracted with Maverick Strategies, a Harrisburg-based consultant and lobbying shop. Over the next six weeks, Maverick will lead the effort to gather signatures during city festivals, on 3rd in the Burg nights, in Strawberry Square and at the Broad Street Market, among other places, according to PA STEAM board members.

Canvassers will also go door-to-door to gather signatures, with the goal of substantially exceeding the 1,000-signature mark, they said.

In the meantime, PA STEAM is still moving forward with a planned opening for the fall semester, said Carolyn Dumaresq, president of the charter school board and a former state secretary of education.

To do so, board members will need to hire a principal, six teachers and support staff, in addition to accepting the first round of students.

PA STEAM plans to open with 120 students, grades K-2, in Midtown 2 at N. 3rd and Reily streets in Harrisburg. The 115,000-square-foot building is currently occupied by HACC, but the college’s lease expires in 2022, and it is slated to begin moving programs out of the building later this year.

PA STEAM plans to expand on an annual basis, adding a grade level each year until it becomes a K-8 school. It also expects to grow horizontally, so that each grade level eventually would have 80 students.

Kegerise said that the PA STEAM Academy would feature small class sizes of 20 students, with a teacher and an aide per classroom, along with a strong creative component, community involvement, alignment among curriculum areas, skills integration and an emphasis on the use of technology. STEAM itself stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Doug Neidich, another board member, said that he believes it’s vital to offer educational options to young parents, many of whom leave the city when their children reach school age. He said that he envisions PA STEAM Academy as a possible feeder school for the city’s well-regarded SciTech High and for the arts-focused CASA charter school.

“We spent a ton of time getting this right, and we look forward to launching it,” said Neidich, CEO of GreenWorks Development, which owns the Midtown 2 building.

Dumaresq served for about 18 months as the state’s education secretary under former Gov. Tom Corbett. However, she said she doesn’t believe that her tenure necessarily will give the PA STEAM Academy an edge if the matter does go before the Charter School Appeal Board.

“It might seem like an advantage, but they’re very independent thinkers,” Dumaresq told TheBurg.

Elizabeth Hardison of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported today the Appeal Board remains populated with holdovers from the Corbett administration, as Gov. Tom Wolf has not made his own appointments.

For more information on the charter school appeals process, visit https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-Appeals.aspx.

For more information on the petition drive, contact Amanda Boris at [email protected].

The Last Lesson: Why do employees leave the Harrisburg school system? Exit interviews shed some light.

March 1, 2019 | by Lizzy Hardison

Pop quiz: What do high truancy rates and low test scores have in common in the Harrisburg school district?

According to administrators, both are caused by high rates of teacher turnover.

Resignations in Harrisburg’s school district reached a five-year high during the 2017-18 school year, when 136 classroom teachers, principals, aides, librarians and other school building employees quit their jobs, according to district data. (At a given point, the district employs about 580 union-represented teachers and aides across its 13 school campuses.)

In the past year, officials have said that this churn of teachers undermines student performance in the city’s struggling schools. And while administrators have designed programs to boost teacher retention, records obtained by TheBurg suggest they’re not informed by much data.

Records obtained under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know law reveal that, for at least five years, fewer than 2 percent of departing employees chose to submit exit interviews to the district. These voluntary surveys allow employees to explain why they resigned and what the district could have done to keep them employed.

Of more than 550 employees who resigned from the district between August 2013 and December 2018, only 11 submitted exit interviews to the district. Of those who did, only nine offered substantive, qualitative reflections and feedback to administrators.

With such a paltry response rate, the exit interviews hardly constitute a sample size from which to draw conclusions about workplace conditions in Harrisburg schools.

But the survey responses, which came from assistant principals, teachers and safety monitors, do constitute the most official data that administrators have as they try to stem the flow of employees out of the district. And that mission has high stakes.

Matter of Pay

The leaders of the Harrisburg Education Association (HEA), the union representing teachers and classroom aides, have long acknowledged that pay in Harrisburg is lower than in surrounding districts.

The average teacher salary in Pennsylvania is $67,535, according to data from the state Department of Education. But the average pay in Harrisburg is almost $10,000 lower, coming in at just $58,257 a year.

The median salary in 2018 was $56,852, according to data obtained by TheBurg.

It may come as no surprise, then, that five employees—45 percent of all respondents—who submitted exit interviews to the district between 2013 and 2018 said they were dissatisfied with their pay.

One employee, a school nurse working at SciTech High School, said she resigned to take a better paying job in a different district.

“The salary has not kept up with cost of living and with the pension program,” the employee said. “I will miss people here, but I felt I need to move on for this reason and expand my horizons.”

Another employee, who said she was overall satisfied with her workload, resources and even her salary in Harrisburg, still said that “pay/compensation” and “job security” led her to pursue a new job closer to her home.

The reason for Harrisburg’s relatively low teacher salaries dates back to the financial crisis the city experienced throughout the early 2000s, when the district was still under mayoral control. Until 2011, a board of control appointed by Harrisburg’s mayor ran the district, and its finances were intermingled with the city’s.

That arrangement allowed for a number of questionable transfers of money from the school district’s coffers, particularly under former Mayor Steve Reed, who diverted more than $8 million in district funds to Harrisburg University in the early 2000s, according to a PennLive report.

At the same time, the district was borrowing money to pay for its own expenses, a 2008 report from Pennsylvania’s Auditor General found.

The transfers and borrowing exacerbated the district’s already-tight finances. Like the city government, the school district’s revenue streams are constrained by Harrisburg’s stagnant tax base and its large swaths of tax-exempt real estate.

Between 2011 and 2013, the district furloughed teachers, closed school buildings and eliminated educational offerings to wipe out a budget deficit. HEA members took a 5 percent salary cut in 2013.

The pay cut was later rescinded and teacher salaries restored, but union members remain frozen on the salary “step” ladder that would award raises based on longevity.

As a result, pay in the district has lagged behind that of neighboring school systems.

HEA President Jody Barksdale could not comment on the salary freezes, due to ongoing bargaining negotiations between the union and the district.

However, she confirmed that low pay and stagnant wages are tough pills for teachers to swallow. That makes it all the more important, she said, that the district find other ways to support and retain its educators.

“Obviously, we want to give our teachers support. We want them to feel like they can stay and have a career here and still be able to support their family,” Barksdale said. “We would like to be able to increase pay, but under circumstances of the [recovery] plan… it’s very difficult to get teachers and to keep teachers.”

Support, Counseling

Not all survey respondents cited financial concerns as a reason they left the district. As some responses show, an employee can be perfectly satisfied with pay but remain unfulfilled in other aspects of a job.

For example, one teacher who said she was “satisfied” with her benefits, pay and compensation, said she left the district due to “unsafe medical practices.”

In her undated exit interview, she said that the district would be a better place to work if it “hired licensed LPNs [licensed practical nurses] to staff the health room.”

A 2015 report by Pennsylvania’s auditor general found that none of Harrisburg’s school nurses had valid licenses between 2010 and 2014. They were subsequently replaced with licensed professionals.

District administrators said in January that the teacher’s concern had been investigated, and that current medical practices in the district are up to standard.

Other teachers said the district lacked resources to help students and staff respond to unruly students.

Three survey respondents told district administrators that they wanted more consistent discipline practices or more resources to support students who misbehaved in class.

“Working in HSD is hard when student behaviors are not addressed,” said one respondent, who completed an exit interview upon her retirement. “It takes too long to get students placed into special ed. settings, even students who qualify for services are not moved to the correct room for sometimes months on end. Additional behavioral support facilities are needed for students with chronic behavior problems.”

Another teacher said that offering a wider array of student services would make the district a better place to work.

“Students being held accountable for negative behaviors, mental health supports for students and families, alternative education opportunities for students facing challenges with learning in a regular educational setting,” she wrote.

She added that “professional development opportunities focusing on behavior interventions” could have prevented her from leaving the district.

These critiques echo remarks made by HEA members in 2016 and 2017, when teachers asked the Harrisburg school board for more mental health support and counseling for disruptive students.

At a school board meeting in November 2017, Barksdale said that violent outbursts among students were on the rise in elementary schools and that normal training did not prepare teachers for the mental health needs of students.

“This is serious behavior, and we’re not trained in how to deal with it,” Barksdale said. “The tools we have now are not enough.”

Barksdale said that HEA members, including union building representatives appointed in each school campus, try to debrief departing teachers one-on-one to learn why they are leaving the district.

“Ninety percent of responses are that they feel unsupported with difficult student behaviors,” Barksdale said.

Barksdale and other teachers have been careful not to ascribe motives or malice to students who misbehave. In 2017, Barksdale and others told the school board that many disruptive students experienced trauma at home and acted out in school as a “cry for help.”

In a statement issued in late January, district administrators said that mental health services have long been lacking in Harrisburg and Dauphin County. The district contracts with Pennsylvania Counseling Services and Pressley Ridge to provide school-based outpatient mental health services. Additional support and resources are available through state and county agencies, they said.

Administrators also pointed out that parental involvement plays an important role in treating child mental health issues. If a student’s needs are greater than what the district can provide, a school counselor can refer him or her to the Dauphin County Case Management Unit.

But not all students who are referred ultimately get the services they need.

“Due to factors beyond the District’s control, this is a very long and time-consuming process, and as a result, many of our parents grow weary and lack the follow through with the lengthy process,” administrators said in a statement issued through a spokeswoman. “Sometimes, once services are in place, many times the agency will ‘drop’ the child from services due to parental non-compliance with appointments.”

According to Barksdale, teachers in the district do not believe that the district’s current systems are sufficient. She also pointed out that the district cut counselors in 2018 to resolve a budget deficit, despite repeated calls by teachers to increase counseling resources in schools.

The cuts have left fewer trained professionals to make referrals or assist teachers in school buildings, she said.

“This is where the lack of support and appreciation comes into play,” Barksdale said. “There’s limited tools we have as teachers to help with [student behavior], and a lot of that is, unfortunately, why people leave.”

Facility Issues

Three survey respondents told the district that they were unsatisfied with their physical working environment. Others said that better facilities in another district made a new job more attractive.

Barksdale said that cleanliness is a problem in some district buildings, due to a shoestring staff of janitors and facility staff.

“When you are understaffed, the buildings aren’t as clean as they could be,” Barksdale said. “I know the people working there are working as hard as they can, but it’s very hard to replace people who are out sick or on leave.”

Teachers have also complained to union representatives about heating and air conditioning, Barksdale said.

District administrators responded only that, “Facility improvements are continuous and ongoing.”

Retention

In a joint statement, district officials said that employee exit surveys are reviewed by “designated members” of the administration and the Human Resources Department.

But they declined to say who in the district is ultimately responsible for improving teacher retention.

Administrators said only that they have in place “administrative collaboration to support teachers.” They also touted current initiatives—such as a yearlong induction and mentoring program for all new teachers, professional development seminars, and the elective Teacher Leadership Academy—that are designed to retain educators.

They also said that administrators are “working diligently” to improve the return rate on the surveys.

“The collected exit interviews have provided the District with invaluable data and insight into the processes and procedures that are working well in the District, as well as areas for improvement,” they said.

The district is currently contracting with an interim human resources director, since former HR Director Curtis Tribue resigned in January after being put on administrative leave last summer.

Interim HR Director Barbara Richards told the school board in January that she personally contacts each teacher who tenders a resignation letter to invite them to submit an exit interview. The practice has already yielded a much higher return rate on exit interviews, she said.

Nonetheless, the rate of employee resignations in Harrisburg shows no signs of slowing. School board documents show that 80 teachers, principals, administrators and other staff members have resigned just since August.

February News Digest

March 1, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

Delay in School Board Appointment

It may be months before Harrisburg residents learn who will be the newest member of the district’s school board, as a court hearing in the matter isn’t slated to take place until late April.

Court of Common Pleas Judge John McNally has scheduled an April 23 court date to hear a citizen’s group response to a petition supporting Ralph Rodriguez, a city resident who wants to fill the vacant seat.

The group known as Concerned about the Children of Harrisburg (CATCH) responded to the petition filed on Jan. 24 on behalf of Rodriguez. As part of its response, CATCH asked the court to appoint its own preferred candidate, Cornelius Chachere.

This petition response appears to have triggered a series of events that will take several months to resolve.

The parties now have until mid-March to finish their discovery processes, followed by the April 23 court hearing.

Jayne Buchwach, a member of CATCH, said that her group opted to respond to Rodriguez’s petition, as opposed to filing an original petition in support of Chachere, after they saw that Rodriguez’s supporters had filed first.

“The response states our objections,” she said. “It also tells the court—this is who we think should be on it.”

The response touts Chachere’s qualifications and, like an original petition would, asks the court to appoint him.

To add further complexity to this issue, former school board Director James Thompson also has filed a petition with the court for the seat. Technically, this makes four candidates for the seat: Rodriguez, Chachere, Thompson and Marva Brown. In their petition, Rodriguez’s supporters mention that appointing Brown also would be acceptable to them.

The board seat became empty following the Dec. 16 death of school board Director Melvin Wilson. The remaining board members, split between Rodriguez and Chachere, failed to muster a majority of five votes to replace Wilson within a 30-day time period, throwing the matter to the court.

Buchwach said that she wasn’t concerned about having only eight members on the board for an extended period.

“The board is contentious,” she said. “So, having eight there or nine there—it really doesn’t matter.”

Meanwhile, five of the nine school board seats will be up this election year. CATCH has vowed to put up its own slate of candidates for the board seats.

Fetterman Starts Listening Tour

A packed room and dozens of speakers greeted Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in Harrisburg last month, as he kicked off a statewide listening tour on the proposed legalization of recreational marijuana.

Some 300 people filed into the auditorium of the Harrisburg Jewish Community Center for the first of 67 such events, as Fetterman began to wind his way through every county in the commonwealth.

For about two hours, Fetterman listened patiently and respectfully as speaker after speaker rose either in support of or in opposition to the proposal, often sharing with him emotional stories from their lives.

One young man named Darryl said that he was arrested and jailed for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and now can’t find a full-time job because of those convictions.

“That’s why I’m struggling so badly, because of a stupid possession charge,” he said. “It’s time to end this.”

To that end, a few speakers recommended not only legalization but expungement of criminal records for those previously convicted.

Les Stark, executive director of Reading-based Keystone Cannabis Coalition, a pro-legalization advocacy group, said that, in Pennsylvania, about 25,000 people a year are arrested for marijuana possession.

“How many lives have been ruined in Harrisburg alone?” he asked. “Over the next 10 years, will we ruin the lives of 250,000 more Pennsylvania citizens?”

Several speakers identified themselves as users of medical marijuana, which is legal, and testified to the effectiveness of cannabis for treating their conditions.

While most attendees spoke in favor of legalization, some did not.

Several speakers said they feared that legalizing recreational marijuana would lead to greater threats to public safety—from the potential of more car accidents to the possible greater use of harsher drugs.

“My main concern is that I have a grandchild turning 16,” said one man. “My concern is that I believe recreational marijuana is a mind-controlling substance. I’m afraid for her to be driving out on the highway when some other driver’s mind is being controlled by marijuana.”

Other speakers accused the state of wanting to legalize recreational marijuana as a revenue-raising tool.

“I’m not against medical marijuana, but I am against use of recreational marijuana,” said one man. “I believe the administration just wants to create a new revenue source to tax and spend.”

Throughout the lengthy event, Fetterman said little from his seat on the stage, listening attentively as people spoke their minds.

At one point, he asked would-be speakers to allow a woman, who was holding an infant, to move to the front of the long line. The woman, who said she drove in from Hummelstown, offered a moving story about surviving AIDS then, relatively late in life, giving birth to her baby.

“Medical cannabis helped me survive by the skin of my teeth,” she said. “It can’t be denied to others.”

Illegal Guns Seized

Harrisburg police have seized hundreds of firearms over the past few years, following a department-wide push to take illegal guns off of city streets.

At a press conference last month, police lined three long tables with handguns, rifles and shotguns, which they said was a small sample of the 646 illegal weapons confiscated from 2016-18.

Capt. Gabriel Olivera said that, in 2016, city police Commissioner Thomas Carter instructed officers to focus on the epidemic of illegal weapons in the city.

“All these guns were seized mostly without officers engaging these individuals with gunfire,” Olivera said. “Our officers have shown great restraint.”

According to Olivera, 196 guns were seized in 2016, 252 in 2017, and 198 in 2018. The far majority of these weapons have been handguns.

Carter said that, even before 2016, his officers routinely seized illegal firearms. But he wanted them to be more mindful of illegally owned guns, most of which have been stolen, as they patrolled and made arrests.

“I work with these amazing men and women on a day-in and day-out basis, and I know their capabilities,” he said, referring to his officers. “It’s something the entire agency bought into.”

Olivera mentioned that, for 2018, Harrisburg had about a 10-percent drop in “Part 1” offenses, which include the most serious crimes like murder, robbery and aggravated assault, compared to 2017. He also cited a 5- to 6-percent reduction in “Part 2” crimes, such as simple assault, disorderly conduct and most drug possession offenses, which are generally considered to be less serious.

“I can’t tell you that the number of guns has reduced the homicide rate,” Carter said. “But I can tell you that it has reduced violent crime.”

Olivera said that, after police seize a stolen gun, officers try to determine the rightful owner, so it can be returned. If no owner is identified, the gun eventually is destroyed, he said.

ICA Board Complete

A Harrisburg resident and former media executive has secured the final seat on Harrisburg’s new financial oversight board.

David Schankweiler, former publisher of the Central Penn Business Journal, was appointed to the five-member Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (ICA) by state Senate Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati.

Schankweiler joins UPMC Pinnacle executive Tina Nixon, nonprofit professional Audry Carter, attorney Kathy Speaker-MacNett, and property developer Ralph Vartan on the newly created ICA, which will oversee Harrisburg’s finances for five years.

Until 2016, Schankweiler was the CEO and owner of Journal Multimedia, which published the Central Penn Business Journal and other publications. Since his retirement from the publishing industry, he has served on numerous nonprofit boards.

The board met for the first time last month for an organizational meeting.

New Police Gear

Harrisburg police last month showed off a pile of new protective gear, equipment it purchased with a grant from UPMC Pinnacle.

At a press conference, the city’s police bureau shared samples of new vests, helmets and steel plates, part of about 120 pieces of protective gear that will help protect officers from lethal, high-caliber weapons, according to police Commissioner Thomas Carter.

In total, UPMC Pinnacle donated more than $40,000 for the equipment purchase. That figure includes about $20,000 raised last June from the “3.2 to Protect the Blue” race, which was organized by UPMC Pinnacle emergency room nurses, with the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation donating much of the remainder.

“I had no idea of the dedication and love that these people showed our officers,” said Carter, flanked by UPMC nurses and Harrisburg police officers.

The new gear includes 60 helmets, 40 “body armor level 3 ballistic” protective vests with steel plates and 20 additional steel plates. The vendor, Royersford, Pa.-based Body Armor Megastore, contributed another 10 armor body vest sets.

Carter said that the need for the equipment arose last year following the death of U.S. Deputy Marshal Christopher Hill during a raid on a house in Allison Hill. The bureau realized that its helmets and vests were not adequate to protect against today’s powerful firearms, he said.

Deputy Police Chief Deric Moody said that his officers will not wear the equipment regularly, but will keep it nearby in case it’s needed.

After the press conference, Mayor Eric Papenfuse stressed that the equipment was not the full body armor “riot gear” that the bureau requested in 2017 after high-profile clashes throughout the city between “anti-Sharia” protestors and “antifa” counter-protestors. That gear was already purchased following a $68,000 allocation from City Council, he said.

Teachers Protest Pay

A sea of teachers dressed in red and carried homemade signs at a Harrisburg school board meeting last month, protesting what they perceive as unfair pay.

Hundreds of teachers flanked the standing-room-only gymnasium and wore “Red for Ed,” demanding to know why the school board denied a grievance settlement that would have raised the pay of veteran teachers.

In response, the district claimed that the pay raises would be prohibitively expensive for the struggling district, saying, in a prepared statement that “the settlement costs would run into the millions of dollars because of its continuing impact on salary costs in the district.”

At the heart of this fight is a set of intersecting problems: the Harrisburg school district’s budget issues, complaints of low pay and high teacher turnover rate. Veteran teachers demand that their pay reflect the time they’ve invested in Harrisburg schools, but the district asserts that veteran teachers are already being paid competitive wages.

“The more veteran the teacher is at Harrisburg, the more competitively they are paid under the negotiated salary schedule,” the statement read. “The board also believes that if the [Harrisburg Education] association was so concerned about the turnover problem in the district, it would have recommended that this be addressed in our ongoing labor contract negotiations where the teachers have refused to make a salary proposal after 14 months of negotiations.”

“We haven’t refused anything,” Barksdale responded. “We have to settle this before we agree on anything.”

The events culminating in the protest began in August when the Harrisburg Education Association filed a grievance against the board, claiming that veteran teachers were underpaid.

In it, they stated that the district had hired new teachers at rates higher than veteran teachers with equivalent experience, violating their contract. In January, the union reached a verbal agreement to raise the salaries of some of the lowest paid veteran teachers, but the board voted down that contract.

2019 Arts Awards Announced

Theatre Harrisburg has announced the recipients of the 2019 Awards for Distinguished Service to the Arts in the Capital Region (“Arts Awards”).

Ronnie Waters, a jazz musician, arranger, composer and educator, will receive the “Award to an Individual,” and The State Museum of Pennsylvania will receive the “Award to an Organization, Company or Group.”

The awards will be presented on Sunday, June 2, in a theatrical gala at Whitaker Center in downtown Harrisburg. The event is open to the public, and proceeds benefit Theatre Harrisburg.

For more information about the awards, including banquet reservations, visit www.theatreharrisbug.com/artsawards.

Mural Fest Returns

The Harrisburg Mural Festival is returning for another round, as Sprocket Mural Works last month announced a 2019 festival.

Co-organizer Megan Caruso said that Sprocket will oversee the creation of 10 murals over 10 days, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 8. The purpose, she said, is to add density to Harrisburg’s existing “mural trail,” which runs mostly along 3rd Street in downtown and Midtown.

“We want Harrisburg to be a mural-dense city,” she said. “So, they have to be concentrated.”

Sprocket also plans to mount a mural in Allison Hill, Caruso said. The organization created 18 murals during its first mural festival, which was held in 2017.

Lobbying Contract on Hold

Maverick Strategies will need to wait until mid-month to find out if its lobbying contract with Harrisburg will be renewed.

City Council was expected to vote on a one-year, $60,000 contract with the city-based lobbying shop last month, but pulled the resolution at the start of a council legislative session.

Earlier, council had asked Maverick for detailed billing statements for their prior contract, which ended Dec. 31. That information was received just before February’s legislative session, and council needed time to review the bills, said President Wanda Williams.

“We need clarification on these invoices,” Williams said. “City Council has additional questions they want to ask.”

Williams said that they’ll request that Maverick appear at the next council work session, which is slated for March 5, with a contract vote likely at the following legislative session on March 12.

So Noted

Brooks R. Foland of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman and Goggin has been named president of the Dauphin County Bar Association for 2019. The rest of the 2019 executive committee includes Lisa M. Benzie of Navitsky, Olson & Wisneski LLP; Paula J. McDermott of Post & Shell P.C.; Scott B. Cooper of Schmidt Kramer Harrisburg; and Thomas P. Gacki of Eckert Seamans.

D&H Distributing plans to move its headquarters from Harrisburg to Lower Paxton Township later this year, it was announced last month. The century-old company will relocate from the 2500-block of N. 7th Street to a 50-acre campus near I-81.

Harrisburg University has named former professional player Alex Chu to coach its “League of Legends” e-sports team. Chu joined Giuseppe Gramano and Chad Smeltz to round out the e-sports coaching staff at the university.

Joyce Davis has left her position as Harrisburg’s communications director to take a post as the new opinion editor at PennLive. At press time, her replacement in the city had not been named.

National Association of Collegiate Esports last month announced that it had selected Harrisburg for its 2019 annual conference. The July 17-19 convention will attract 300 to 400 attendees, with most events taking place at Harrisburg University and Whitaker Center.

Wildheart Ministries is seeking skilled artists to do small art installations for its third annual Summer Project in Allison Hill, June 9 to Aug. 3. For more information, contact Serena Viera at [email protected].

Changing Hands

Berryhill St., 2156: M. & J. Rider to V. Marsico, $42,500

Bigelow Dr., 37: BSR Rental Trust to L. Pate, $67,500

Briggs St., 2018: D. Patterson to Cohen Altman Properties LLC, $40,000

Brookwood St., 2202: D. McCahan to Z. Hess, $80,000

Calder St., 517: R. Godshall to PA Deals LLC, $80,000

Crescent St., 332: Dynaspek Holdings to K. Stoute, $55,000

Croyden Rd., 2963: M. Thomas to D. Jamison, $49,900

Emerald Ct., 2450: S. Manly & J. Ebenezer to J. Gilliam, $80,000

Emerald St., 235: R. Valentine & C. Frater to R. Liddick, $35,000

Green St., 1022: Dilks Properaties of Harrisburg LLC to S. & J. Toole, $100,000

Green St., 1605: C. Frater to Fratelli Property Investments LLC, $110,000

Green St., 1609: C. Frater to Fratelli Property Investments LLC, $110,000

Green St., 2035: G. Neff & City Limits Realty to Heinly Homes LLC & W. Hoover, $55,000

Green St., 2037: WCI Partners LP to D. Ranson, $219,000

Green St., 3224: Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB & Selene Finance LP to C. Wise, $51,500

Greenwood St., 2516: W. & C. Davenport to R9 Holdings LLC, $33,000

Hoffman St., 3010: Innovative Devices Inc. to R. Wiley, $122,000

Hummel St., 250: Y. Martinus to M. Fragoso, $150,000

Kensington St., 2135: A. Segin to L. Scott, $61,000

Lenox St., 2011: R. Volcy to N. Burrell, $162,000

Logan St., 2303: M. Arnold to S. & S. Stridiron, $30,000

North St., 251: Peleton Investments to Trip Aces 251 LLC, $135,000

N. 2^nd St., 719: J&S Estate LLC to Hasan Properties LLC, $265,000

N. 2^nd St., 1937: M. Horgan to B. & A. Klinger, $201,000

N. 2^nd St., 2449: L. Lee to J. Reed & M. DePhilip, $120,000

N. 2^nd St., 2739: S. Staub & E. Adler to K. Werner & D. Neyman, $242,000

N. 2^nd St., 2953: PI Capital LLC to V. Edwards, $272,000

N. 3^rd St., 1931 & 1933: C. Frater & R. Valentine to GMG Harrisburg A LLC, $350,000

N. 4^th St., 1729: J. & E. Lonon to C. & E. Little, $142,000

N. 4^th St., 1924: Equity Trust Co. Custodian Julie Burns IRA to C. Williams, $117,500

N. 4^th St., 2030: I. Alderton to B. Russ, $87,000

N. 4^th St., 2448: A. Barber to S. Lewis, $84,000

N. 6^th St., 1002: A. Antoun to N&R Group LLC, $31,000

N. 6^th St., 2933: C. Wise to J. Ryan, $134,900

N. 6^th St., 3105: M&T Bank to K. Kissam, $52,000

N. 18^th St., 59, 61& 63: MSP Associates Inc. to Shutter Real Estate LLC, $85,000

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 314: D. Forney to A. Winch, $90,000

Paxton St., 1626: S. Reed to D. & B. Chisolm, $55,000

Penn St., 1933: D. Ranson to J. Hunter, $149,900

Race St., 600: D. Korlewitz to K. Douglas, $135,000

Randolph St., 1416: A. Campbell to N. Tran, $74,000

Reel St., 2742: L. Polite to W. Edgerton, $58,900

S. 13^th St., 401: N. & A. James to C., A., F. & S. Weaver, $59,000

S. 17^th St., 1112: Wells Fargo National Association to HT Properties LLC, $35,920

S. 18^th St., 1039: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to T. Bilbo & J. Seay, $42,200

S. 19^th St., 1141: Z. Robinson to PA Deals LLC, $42,000

S. 20^th St., 512: GKT Enterprises LLC to Equity Trust Co., $34,000

S. 25^th St., 448: J. & J. Nuhfer to K. & M. Stone, $100,000

S. 26^th St., 737: S. Wedemeyer to W. Quezada, $33,000

S. 27^th St., 728: E. Patterson to H. Alcantara, $33,621

S. Front St., 577: M. Kuhns to E. Stover, $138,000

State St., 1816: M. Ochoa to H. Plaza, $50,000

State St., 1900 , 1902 & 1904: D. Kapp & W. Cupp to Cassiano Properties LLC, $175,000

Wiconisco St., 523: N. McCoy & M. Gordon to Equity Trust Co., $42,000

Wiconisco St., 623: V. Rivas to L. Cruz & I. Perez, $55,000

Wyeth St., 1405: J. & M. Reis to L. Stamm, $115,000

Harrisburg property sales for January 2019, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate.

Harrisburg school board rejects STEAM Academy charter school application

February 20, 2019 | by Mary Imgrund

The Midtown 2 building at N. 3rd and Reily streets in Harrisburg

The Harrisburg school board has overwhelmingly rejected an application for a new charter school.

By a vote of 7-0, the board on Tuesday night turned down the proposed PA STEAM Academy, which hoped to open this fall in the Midtown 2 (Evangelical Press) building at the corner of N. 3^rd and Reily streets.

“I think we need to make sure that people understand that it doesn’t matter who sits on the [proposed charter school] board,” said Harrisburg school board President Danielle Robinson. “It doesn’t matter who’s backing you. It doesn’t matter who’s behind you. We are not just going to hand over our children to you.”

That decision marked a sudden turn in the mood at the meeting, which was attended by dozens of teachers upset over the board’s recent rejection of a pay increase for veteran teachers. This time, they were on the board’s side.

Before the vote, numerous teachers and residents urged the board to vote “no” on the application.

“Why is this even on the agenda?” said Michele Rolko, vice president of the teacher’s union, the Harrisburg Education Association. “You should be voting this down.”

The audience cheered and chanted, “Vote it down.”

In November, a high-powered group, led by former state Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq, proposed the PA STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Academy. The charter school, with an initial enrollment of 120 students, hoped to open this fall for grades K-2, adding a grade of instruction each year and eventually becoming a K-8 school.

The school planned to take over more space at Midtown 2 as HACC left. HACC’s 15-year lease on the building expires in 2022, and the college plans to start moving programs out as early as this year.

In recent months, PA STEAM Academy board members have appeared before the school board three times to make their case. In December, they made their initial presentation and returned in January and February to answer questions.

The PA STEAM Academy now can appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Charter School Appeal Board, a body that Dumaresq once headed as former education secretary. She has said previously that the school’s board of directors indeed would appeal if denied.

After voting 7-0 against the application, the Harrisburg school board voted 7-0 to approve the adjudication in support of the denial.

Harrisburg has a long history of denying charter school applications, with some board members saying that charter schools take students and funds away from the struggling public school system. In fact, that sentiment was echoed at the meeting.

“Don’t continue to drain money out of the district. [Charter schools] are like a placebo, they’re not going to work,” said one resident. “We need to fix the schools that are already here. Another charter school is not going to fix the current graduation rate.”

Robinson asserted that the board has stood firm against a proliferation of charter schools during her tenure.

“In my time here, we’ve had roughly nine charter school applications that have come through this board, and, as far as I know, only two have gone through,” she said.

Harrisburg teachers crowd school board meeting to protest pay for veteran teachers

February 20, 2019 | by Mary Imgrund

The Harrisburg school district’s Lincoln administration building on State Street

A sea of teachers dressed in red and carried homemade signs at a Harrisburg school board meeting on Tuesday night, protesting what they perceive as unfair pay.

Hundreds of teachers flanked the standing-room-only gymnasium and wore “Red for Ed,” demanding to know why the school board denied a grievance settlement last week that would have raised the pay of veteran teachers.

In response, the district claimed that the pay raises would be prohibitively expensive for the struggling district, saying, in a prepared statement, that “the settlement costs would run into the millions of dollars because of its continuing impact on salary costs in the district.”

“The more veteran the teacher is at Harrisburg, the more competitively they are paid under the negotiated salary schedule,” the statement read, drawing uproarious boos from the crowd. “The board also believes that if the [Harrisburg Education] association was so concerned about the turnover problem in the district, it would have recommended that this be addressed in our ongoing labor contract negotiations where the teachers have refused to make a salary proposal after 14 months of negotiations.”

“We haven’t refused anything,” Barksdale responded. “We have to settle this before we agree on anything.”

When asked if she was surprised by the large teacher turnout, Barksdale gave an emphatic, “no.”

“I’m not surprised at all,” she said, saying that teachers are fed up and want to know why their agreement wasn’t upheld.

The events culminating in last night’s display began in August when the Harrisburg Education Association filed a grievance against the board, claiming that veteran teachers were underpaid.

Teachers now are left wondering if their grievance will ever be resolved. In the meantime, the school district continues to suffer persistent vacancies and reliance on long-term substitute teachers to fill in.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, resident Douglas Thompson-Leader read a statement from Noel Gsell, a first-grade teacher who recently left the school district. In the statement, she said that, when she started teaching in the district, she was “ready to change the world,” but left after feeling abandoned by the district with little training or support for her classroom.

“The administration made me feel… that it was my fault for not being able to control my classroom,” she said, “Harrisburg school district, it’s your fault for not providing a safe space for our kids. It’s your fault that our students aren’t getting the help they need, and it’s your fault that I left and other good teachers continue to leave.”

Court action may delay Harrisburg school board appointment for months

February 14, 2019 | by Lawrance Binda

The Harrisburg school district’s Lincoln administration building

It may be months before Harrisburg residents learn who will be the newest member of the district’s school board, as a court hearing in the matter isn’t slated to take place until late April.

This petition response appears to have triggered a series of events that will take several months to resolve.

CATCH now has until Feb. 21 to file its answer to Rodriguez’s petition, followed by 45 days for discovery and an April 23 court hearing.

“The response states our objections,” she said. “It also tells the court—this is who we think should be on it.”

The response touts Chachere’s qualifications and, like an original petition would, asks the court to appoint him.

“Respondents say that Mr. Chachere is the most qualified candidate that has expressed interest in being appointed by the Court for the existing vacancy on the HSD Board of Directors,” according to CATCH’s response.

Buchwach said that she wasn’t concerned about having only eight members on the board for an extended period.

“The board is contentious,” she said. “So, having eight there or nine there—it really doesn’t matter.”

Meanwhile, five of the nine school board seats will be up this election this year. Next week, on Feb. 19, candidates can begin circulating nominating petitions to run. Completed petitions are due by March 12. The primary election is May 21.

CATCH has vowed to put up its own slate of candidates for the board seats.

In hearing, Harrisburg school district lays out concerns with charter school application

February 5, 2019 | by Maddie Crocenzi

PA STEAM Academy charter school hopes to open in this building in Midtown Harrisburg.

Harrisburg school district administrators tonight presented their assessments of an application for a proposed charter school, asking the school’s founders about everything from financing to curriculum.

The Pennsylvania STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Academy submitted the application in November and presented it to the Harrisburg school board at a public hearing in January.

The school hopes to open later this year in the historic Midtown 2 (Evangelical Press) building at N. 3^rd and Reily streets, which is currently occupied by HACC.

Tonight, district administrators questioned various aspects of the charter school’s application.

The first presenter, Chief Academic Officer Jaimie Foster, focused her report on curriculum, assessment and school design. She highlighted what she perceived to be the school’s lack of a professional development calendar and written curriculum for science, social studies and Spanish.

Other presenters included Director of Special Education Yolanda Goodwin-Humphrey, Coordinator of Assessment, Data and Child Accounting Mary Lou Sypolt, Federal Programs Administrator Damali Brunson-Murray, Interim Director of Human Resources Barbara Richards and Acting Business Manager Bilal Hasan.

Examining the finances of the charter school, Hasan said that he found that expenses exceeded revenue for multiple school years. For the 2022-23 school year, for example, Hasan said that expenses would exceed revenue by more than $31,000.

At first, charter school representatives refuted Hasan’s findings, but later conceded that there were some miscalculations in their data.

Financing, the most significant issue of the night, also carried into the question-and-answer period. Allison Peterson of the Levin Legal Group, representing the school district, asked about such expenses as $50 laptops, $117,000 budgeted for full-time special education and ESL staff and why there was a promissory note, an issue that was left unclear.

At the end of the two-hour-plus-long hearing, Carolyn Dumaresq, a former Pennsylvania secretary of education who is a founding board member of the PA STEAM Academy, thanked administrators for their review and for pointing out “what they believe were some inconsistencies.”

Later, she said that she understood that some areas needed to be clarified. She added that some of the missing information is in the appendices of the application.

She also said that she believed that some questions were “a little unfair,” such as one about the “Future Ready PA Index,” a newly launched state Department of Education measure of school performance. The index wasn’t included in the application because it didn’t come out until after the application was submitted, she said.

“I think that some of the concerns are all answerable,” Dumaresq said. “So, I’m kind of glad that we have the document now, and we can see that.”

The charter school has seven calendar days to submit a concluding document. The document doesn’t need to follow a set form and can include anything the school wants to say about why they believe they meet the requirements of the charter school law. It can’t include any revised documents or supplemental information, but must be based on what the charter school has already submitted.

Dumaresq said the charter school is planning on addressing some of the concerns brought up tonight so the Harrisburg school board can “feel comfortable” that their concerns were satisfied.

There was only one board member present at tonight’s meeting, President Danielle Robinson. The rest were sick or out-of-town. Robinson said she she’d like to see the concluding document and understand the information from both sides before making a decision.

If the school board grants the five-year charter application, the PA STEAM Academy would open at the HACC Midtown 2 Academic Building, 1500 N. 3rd St., in fall 2019 for grades K-2. The school would add a grade of instruction every year, allowing the incoming cohort of 2nd-graders to progress through 6th grade by the time the charter expires in 2024.

HACC currently occupies Midtown 2, but the 15-year lease on the building expires in June 2022, and HACC announced in March that it would not renew it. The college plans to start moving some programs out of the building as early as next year.

As a public charter school, enrollment at PA STEAM Academy would be free, paid for by students’ school districts. Harrisburg students would have first priority for the 120 enrollment slots. If the school received applications for more students than it could serve, it would select students through a lottery system.

Enrollment would only be open to students from other districts if the school could not fill its seats from within Harrisburg.

A Very Good Year? Yes, assuming you like infrastructure and hate Act 47.

December 28, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

The days tick by and, before you know it, another year has passed us in the city of Harrisburg.

As I normally do for my January column, I’m reliving the recent past by reviewing the top news stories of the last 365 days.

I would say that it was an up-and-down year for Harrisburg, but I feel like I say that every year. In any case, buckle in for a trip down memory lane, assuming, that is, that your memories, like mine, mostly consist of taxes, housing and roadwork.

10. When the Rains Came
In journalism, the weather story may be the last refuge of the uninspired, and, accordingly, we don’t write a lot them. But even we take notice when the relentless rains start to affect people’s everyday lives. In 2018, the deluge began early, took a snow break for a late March blizzard, then continued for much of the year, obliterating outdoor events, delaying road projects and closing City Island briefly in July. In its history, Harrisburg has suffered much worse floods, but that was small comfort to the Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat, which lost weeks of sailing due to high water, leading to financial setbacks and appeals for donations.

9. New District, Same Result
The year started off on a hopeful note for area Democrats, as the state’s long-gerrymandered congressional districts were redrawn. The new 10th district, now centered around the Harrisburg area, still had Republicans in the majority, but their partisan advantage had narrowed. A snoozer of a Democratic primary led to the nomination of George Scott, a likeable, mild-mannered minister who, in the general election, raised a lot of money and fielded a large, enthusiastic team of volunteers. However, in the end, he could not dislodge the entrenched Republican incumbent, Scott Perry, who beat back the challenger by nearly three points.

8. Go Downtown
Harrisburg has suffered from decades of disinvestment. So, you might think that city officials would enthusiastically embrace multi-million-dollar redevelopment projects. Some, however, showed little love for a plan to convert two large, underused office buildings on Pine Street to apartments. City Council President Wanda Williams, claiming a lack of affordable units, objected to the projects. Harristown Development countered that some of the proposed units did meet the definition of “affordable” and, in any case, that the city as a whole, and downtown, in particular, would benefit greatly by an influx of new residents and their money. In the end, Williams’ objection could not derail the projects, which satisfied all other conditions set by a city that lacks a formal affordable housing policy.

7. Empty Spaces
During Harrisburg’s golden age, the Market/Cameron street corridor buzzed with activity from factory workers, auto salesmen, postal clerks and ink-stained wretches. But that was long ago. Today, it’s largely a no man’s land, stuck between hope and despair. On the despair side, it lost one of its few remaining structures—the century-old Schell seed building. But the circle of urban life continues, and, in March, the commonwealth released two promising reports. The first set forth renovation plans for the nearby, historic train station, and the second outlined a long-term vision to restore the Paxton Creek watershed, which would add acres of green space to the blighted area and reduce the risk of flooding. Mayor Eric Papenfuse has called the Paxton Creek project potentially transformational, but that transformation remains many years and many more millions of dollars away.

6. House of Controversy
Every year, a story pops up seemingly from nowhere and then surprises me in its public interest. For 2018, that story was the ongoing saga at the House of Music, Arts & Culture—otherwise known as HMAC. The summertime drama started after a patron said that she was assaulted after leaving the venue. The police soon cleared HMAC of culpability, but not before Facebook exploded in an onslaught of online invective. Soon after, TheBurg reported that HMAC had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and that its owners planned to sell the sprawling art space and restaurant. If HMAC does get new owners, 2019 could be a pivotal year for a place that has come a long way over a decade, when it was a blighted shell, but that, by its co-owner’s own admission, could use fresh leadership.

5. Park & Dine
Last January, I wrapped up my annual year-in-review column by stating that, for the first time in years, my top-10 list excluded the single-most persistent issue in Harrisburg—parking. Well, it’s back! In April, the city, Dauphin County, the Downtown Improvement District and Standard Parking inked a deal to provide free street parking after 5 p.m. throughout much of downtown. The early reviews were positive, with restaurant owners saying that business had picked up once patrons realized they could snag a drink or dinner without risking a $30 ticket. The one-year deal expires soon, so we’ll have to see what City Council and other stakeholders think of their “one-year experiment.”

4. Plan Jam
Second only to parking, the unfinished comprehensive plan is the city’s most evergreen story—with us year in, year out. It may now seem like a distant memory, but the city held a public meeting last January on the draft plan. That public hearing garnered many comments from residents, even as Mayor Papenfuse denounced the draft document as “unworkable” and “unsalvageable.” Papenfuse later threatened to replace the entire Planning Commission, even if it took years, to get a plan more to his liking. Nonetheless, the commission stuck with its draft and, in November, requested $50,000 to finish it up. So, could this be the year that Harrisburg finally gets a new comprehensive plan? Maybe, but I’m already reserving an entry for it on my 2019 list.

3. Drama Class
Generally speaking, Harrisburg is a much less dramatic place than it was a few years ago, during the height of the city’s financial crisis. I now will carve out a great, big exception for the school district, which has taken over as the center of city spectacle and dysfunction. Every month of 2018 seemed to feature some new problem—budget shortfalls, a tax hike, poor academic performance, a controversial grading policy, school board resignations, personnel issues, principal reshuffling and a battle over whether to re-appoint the superintendent, among other issues. I’ll go out on a limb and say that, with control of the school board at stake during upcoming municipal elections, city residents should expect more of the same this year.

2. All Roads Lead to (and from) Harrisburg
This past year, the long-awaited 3rd Street corridor project finally began digging, cutting and drilling. Then it stopped. Then it started again. City officials now say that the streetscape and paving project will conclude this year. But 3rd Street wasn’t the only stretch of road on the minds of city residents in 2018. The city kicked off its “Vision Zero” campaign with a public meeting in June, as it strives for zero pedestrian deaths, an ambitious goal considering the shockingly high rate of road fatalities. The year in infrastructure ended on a more hopeful note. In November, residents packed a public meeting on the city’s plan to convert much of N. 2nd Street to two-way traffic. Suburban commuters may have a different opinion, but the crowd that attended the meeting seemed to support the concept overwhelmingly.

1. The Long Good-Bye
In city life, an issue may arise under one set of assumptions, only to take numerous twists and turns before resolution. Such was the case with Harrisburg’s plan to leave Act 47, the state program for distressed municipalities. We began the year assuming the city would roll into a three-year wind-down of its involvement. That assumption was thrown into doubt after the state proposed doubling the city property tax as a condition for leaving. Appalled, Harrisburg officials asked the state legislature to allow the city to retain the extra taxing authority it has had under Act 47. That bill passed in October, though in a highly modified form that offers just five more years of enhanced taxing power. With that compromise, Harrisburg plans soon to exit Act 47 in 2019, allowing it, after many years, to shed the moniker, “distressed city.”

As I typically do, I will wrap up the January column with the disclaimer that, while these are my choices for the top Harrisburg news items of 2018, they may not be yours. You easily could make a case that I should have included the tragic deaths of a mother and son at the Dock Street Dam, the death of a U.S. marshal during a raid on a house in Allison Hill and the death of restaurateur Nick Laus, which was our single most-read online story of the year.

Here’s hoping that 2019 brings the people of Harrisburg nothing but good news, which I will happily recap a year from now. And more free parking.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

October News Digest

October 31, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda and Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg to Leave Act 47

A bill passed by the state legislature last month allows Harrisburg to preserve its current tax rates and exit Act 47, a state oversight program for financially distressed municipalities.

The House and Senate both voted overwhelmingly to pass House Bill 2557, which allows Harrisburg to maintain its current local services tax (LST) and earned income tax (EIT) for five years after it exits state oversight. The bill also prohibits the city from enacting a commuter tax and convenes a five-member Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (ICA) to monitor Harrisburg’s finances.

After the vote took place, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse thanked the lawmakers who supported its passage, including its sponsor, Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Cumberland County, and Harrisburg’s lawmakers in the House and Senate, Rep. Patty Kim and Sen. John DiSanto.

“While I wish we had been able to achieve a permanent solution for the city and the region, Harrisburg’s immediate fiscal crisis has lifted,” Papenfuse said. “I look forward to working with the new members of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority—as it’s time to roll up our sleeves and continue to work for the long-term success of Harrisburg and the capital region.”

The bill is the culmination of a 10-month lobbying effort by Harrisburg officials, who have long said the city needs stronger taxing powers to support the capital city. It will allow Harrisburg to preserve about $12 million in annual revenue that would have been lost in a traditional Act 47 exit.

Act 47 allows Harrisburg to levy a 2 percent EIT on all residents and a $156 LST, even though state law caps EIT rates at 1 percent and LST at $56 per year. Without HB 2557, Harrisburg would have been forced to cut its EIT in half and slash its LST by two-thirds when it exits state oversight.

Local officials say those rates are untenable in Harrisburg, which supports large swaths of tax-exempt properties and a daily population of some 50,000 commuters. Mayor Eric Papenfuse had told lawmakers that the city’s emergency services and infrastructure would be in jeopardy if the city had to cut its taxes.

With HB 2557 in place, Harrisburg will also be spared high property tax increases that were prescribed in a proposed three-year Act 47 exit plan.

The city did make one significant sacrifice in the final bill, which was amended in October to put a five-year time limit on the enhanced taxing power.

The original legislation only required Harrisburg to retire its tax rates once its surpluses partially funded a post-retirement benefit fund for its employees. Projections estimated that could take up to 20 years.

Rep. Kim called it “the best we can do” in a Republican-controlled legislature. She hopes that the five-year timeframe will still give Harrisburg enough time to increase its tax base.

Bowers Named to City Council

Danielle Bowers, a lifelong Harrisburg resident and state government staffer, is the newest member of Harrisburg City Council.

Last month, Bowers beat out 14 other candidates, including one past council president, to take the seat formerly held by council member Cornelius Johnson.

Bowers works as an executive director for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Tourism and Recreational Development Committee. She previously held researcher roles with the Democratic Policy Office and Legislative Black Caucus and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Pennsylvania State University.

Her appointment to council creates a vacancy on the Zoning Hearing Board, where she has served for the past three years.

Fifteen candidates appeared before council last month to share their qualifications and ask for a chance to serve on the city’s legislative branch. But only four were invited to participate in the interview phase, where sitting council members asked candidates about their skills and goals for public service.

During her interview, Bowers touted her legislative experience and her knowledge of the city’s finances. She said she would like to pass legislation to bolster public safety and hopes to see the city’s Police Bureau return to its full complement.

Candidates Josiah Yonker, an IT professional, Gloria Martin-Roberts, a former council president and mayoral candidate, and Airis Smallwood, a healthcare administrator and musician, also received nominations and sat for interviews.

City Releases Housing Study

The results of Harrisburg’s first citywide housing study are in, and they predict a shortfall of more than 200 rental units at all price points over the next three years.

Representatives from the consulting firm that prepared the study presented their main findings to City Council last month. The authors said demand for rental housing in Harrisburg will outpace supply through 2020, even as development projects put new units on the market.

As a result, Harrisburg will face a shortage of about 244 rental units across the city—a figure that accounts for the city’s existing housing stock, new units coming onto the market and old units becoming uninhabitable.

The study also considers population projections, which anticipate that Harrisburg will gain 300 households in the next three years, mostly in the Allison Hill and Uptown neighborhoods.

The study didn’t offer any policy recommendations, but city hall officials intend to use its findings to develop long-term development strategies and housing policy proposals.

3rd Street Study Released

Harrisburg’s 3rd Street corridor is headed in a positive direction, though it remains a work in progress in terms of redevelopment, economic activity and walkability.

That’s the general conclusion of a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute (ULI), a nonprofit research and educational organization that recently examined the corridor from Reily Street in Midtown to Chestnut Street downtown.

“The 3rd Street corridor possesses a great deal of momentum and potential for continued development,” stated the report, titled “TLC for Harrisburg’s Third Street Corridor.” “Strategically bridging the gap between the downtown and Midtown neighborhoods can put Harrisburg on the map as a vibrant capital city with a strong urban core.”

ULI visited Harrisburg for two days in April, walking the two-mile stretch then interviewing stakeholders who live, work and own businesses there. Their analysis and report were sponsored by Harristown Development, which owns Strawberry Square.

The 14-page report lauds the recent redevelopment and adaptive reuse that has occurred along the stretch. However, it states that much work still needs to be done so that the corridor can achieve a fuller potential. It cites three specific challenges:

“Dead Zones”: Many buildings have been restored, but many have not. There is still too much blight and too many empty storefronts.
Forster Street: Forster Street is too wide, busy and inhospitable, cutting off downtown from Midtown and deterring pedestrian activity.
Aesthetics: Aesthetics are inconsistent. Some areas appear pleasant, while others do not, both in terms of streetscape and the condition of structures.

The study then offers a variety of recommendations, such as incentivizing homeownership, encouraging pop-ups in empty storefronts, increasing police visibility, enforcing maintenance codes, improving the streetscape and better connecting downtown and Midtown.

Two suggestions stood out as especially ambitious.

The first recommended improving the intersection of N. 3rd and Forster streets by employing traffic-calming measures, making it more pedestrian-friendly and possibly reducing the number of lanes. The second proposed forming a “Third Street Coalition,” which would help promote, brand and advocate for the corridor.

Environmental Council Reconstituted

After more than two years of dormancy, Harrisburg’s Environmental Advocacy Council is back in action.

City Council repopulated the all-volunteer body recently when it voted unanimously to approve five appointees nominated by council members and the city administration. One appointee, Rafiyqa Muhammad, is a holdover from the former EAC that dissolved in 2016.

She’s joined by new members Tanya Dierolf, Christine Proctor, Molly Cheatum and Melanie Cook.

The five-member body will advise the mayor and other city officials on matters related to the environment and sustainability. As an advisory group, it does not have the power to manage or disburse money, but it will make recommendations on how to spend the money collected by Harrisburg’s “host fee.”

Harrisburg collects more than $250,000 a year in fees for hosting a regional incinerator, which is owned by the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA). State law allows cities with regional waste sites to assess a $1 per ton fee on the waste processed there. That money must be used to make environmental improvements in the city.

Christopher Nafe, the city’s new sustainability coordinator, will manage the EAC and attend all of its meetings, Mayor Eric Papenfuse said.

Papenfuse hopes that having a designated city hall staff member will help the EAC avoid the dysfunction that felled it in 2016, when most of its five members resigned.

Nafe hopes that the new EAC will advise the city on existing and new initiatives. Those include working with the Tree Advisory Council, which monitors the city’s tree population, and developing educational programs at the city’s new composting facility in Susquehanna Township.

New CRO for Harrisburg Schools

A retired Philadelphia-area superintendent will serve as the new state oversight officer for the Harrisburg School District.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education appointed Dr. Janet Samuels as the district’s new chief recovery officer in October.

She will oversee the implementation of a new, long-term recovery plan aimed at raising the district’s academic performance and financial health.

PDE put the school district under a financial recovery designation in 2012. State law requires every district in recovery to have a state-appointed recovery officer.

Samuels replaces Audrey Utley, who retired in June after serving as Harrisburg’s CRO for three years.

Her salary is capped at $144,000 annually and will be paid by PDE.

Last June, Samuels retired as the superintendent of Norristown Area School District, where she oversaw a $150 million annual budget and nine schools enrolling 7,400 students. She previously served as a regional superintendent for the Philadelphia Area School District. Her career in public education spans 35 years and includes experience as a principal and classroom teacher.

So Noted

Donald E. Schell has been named the new chair of the Homeland Center’s board of trustees. Schell, who has served on the board since 2001, takes over from Morton Spector, who will continue to serve on the board as immediate past chair.

Jeanne Troy is the new development director for Tri County Community Action, it was announced last month. In the newly created position, Troy is responsible for advancing the mission of TCCA by developing donor strategies and increasing fundraising opportunities.

Justin Roth has been named marketing manager for Capital City Mall, leading the marketing efforts for the Camp Hill shopping center. He previously served as the marketing and communications manager for the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC.

Minuteman Press is relocating to larger space next door to its current location on the first block of S. 3rd Street in Harrisburg. Franchise owner Charlotte Todd recently purchased the Original Copy Shop, which had operated for 32 years, and converted it to a Minuteman shop.

Robert W. Morris & Co. last month celebrated the grand opening of its new office at 510 N. Front St., Wormleysburg. This is the second location for the CPA firm, which also has offices in New Bloomfield, Pa.

Three Little Birds Boutique opened a second location last month at the new Hershey Towne Square. The shop, which specializes in women’s clothing, shoes and accessories, joins businesses like Iron Hill Brewpub, Starbucks and several other restaurants and shops at the mixed-use retail and office project in downtown Hershey.
Changing Hands

Bigelow Dr., 22: E. Johnson to T. Henry, $55,000

Briggs St., 214: X. Chen to Around the Corner LLC, $135,000

Capital St., 909: M. Dietz to J. Canamucio & J. Block, $130,000

Chestnut St., 1836: G. Norman to A. Nebbou, $30,000

Crescent St., 219: Anpat LLC to J. Le, $47,000

Croyden Rd., 2926: S. McDougal to A. Guerrero, $74,900

Cumberland St., 260: J. Bane to M. Mueller, $122,250

Delaware St., 266: WCI Partners to D. Taylor, $124,900

Fillmore St., 622: J. Hoch to KAB Rental Properties LLC, $40,000

Fulton St., 1729: J. Tanjung & W. Leyu to M. Gleason, $112,500

Grand St., 924: L. Searles to N. McClure, $79,900

Green St., 1818: J. Lightner to Fratelli Property Investments LLC, $110,000

Greenwood St., 2151: Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of PA Inc. to Edwin L. Heim Co., $320,000

Holly St., 1811: Wells Fargo Bank NA to R. Murphy, $32,500

Holly St., 2009: PA Deals LLC to E. Shelly, $65,900

Hunter St., 1535: P. & F. Kehler to S. Costa, $35,000

Kelker St., 231: Cartus Financial Corp. to E. Bliman & H. Hamilton, $180,000

Kelker St., 332 & 1821 N. 3^rd St.: Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority to Pennsylvania National Fire Museum, $125,000

Kensington St., 2302: X. Weng & C. Yang to Fowler Investments LLC, $39,500

Kensington St., 2348: M. Hardison to N. Terry, $66,000

Kent Lane, 198: Neidlinger Enterprises to F. Manzanillo & S. Rodriguez, $75,000

Lenox St., 1910: RTD Properties and Management to R. Do, $40,000

Lewis St., 321: D. Licciardello to R. Neely, $114,900

Luce St., 2354 & 2356: L. Salcedo to C. Santiago, $102,000

Market St., 1829: D. & S. Parikh to G. Allen, $69,000

Market St., 2211: G. Dunn to S., J. & M. Buckham, $84,400

Muench St., 402: M. Huynh to SA Home Solutions LLC, $30,000

Mulberry St., 1842: A. Woolridge to A. Faican & E. Sumbra, $49,900

North St., 1609: W. Davis to R. Cantave, $120,000

N. 2^nd St., 901 & 903: W. & J. Hobbie to B. Golper & WG PA Holdings LLC, $365,000

N. 2^nd St., 907: D. Pong to R. Anspach Jr., 173,900

N. 3^rd St., 1636: MJ Trust Properties LLC & C. Jurasits to Fratelli Property Investment LLC, $110,000

N. 4^th St., 2443: T. & K. Malesic to W. Lawrence, $80,000

N. 5^th St., 2605: Harrisburg Homes Investment LLC to NGDGR Company Inc., $48,000

N. 6^th St., 2605: A. & P. Ashenberg to R2 Property Group LLC, $43,000

N. 7^th St., 2400: J. Holmes & BAS Tax Services Corp. to DAP 7 Curtin LP, $270,000

N. 7^th St., 2640: Q. Higgs to Riley Residential Real Estate LLC, $35,000

N. 15^th St., 1121: Golden Lover Realty LLC to B. Shephard & N. Cook, $39,000

N. 15^th St., 1415: J. & O. Hearn to E. Mantilla, $43,500

Peffer St., 613: K. Timmons to J. Santiago, $46,000

Penn St., 1336: H. & L. Roberts to J. O’Neill, $36,100

Penn St., 2105: G. Hanslovan to T. Hage, $45,000

Penn St., 2139: PA Capital Area Investments LLC to DHS Team LLC, $30,000

Reily St., 333: Dobson Family Partnership to ADS Investments LLC, $89,900

Seneca St., 241: J. Williamson to CR Property Group, $32,500

S. 13^th St., 1403: M. Stewart to B. Price Jr., $38,000

S. 14^th St., 916: 916 S. 14^th Street Partnership to Harrisburg Housing Authority, $1,150,000

S. 14^th St., 1435 & 1400 Randolph St.: A. Ingram Jr. & W. Blankenship to City of Harrisburg, $43,000

S. 20^th St., 1100: Paxton Street Home Benevolent Society Inc. to Paxton Place I LP, $250,000

S. 21^st St., 922: A. Mariluz Jr. to D. Ramos, $68,000

State St., 231, Unit 304: P. Brommer to BCRA Realty LLC, $102,000

Susquehanna St., 1805: HBG Rents LLC to V. & C. Vergara, $61,000

Sycamore St., 1711: Leonard J. Dobson Family LP to H. Yunis, $70,000

Valley Rd., 2305: J. Dunn & A. Meyers to J. Alpert, $179,900

Verbeke St., 233: D. Varno & C. Johnson to E. Herrmann & L. Hall, $126,900

Walnut St., 1232: Valley Real Estate Holdings LLC to C. & C. Hinckley, $33,000

Wayne St., 1517: J. Alvarado to A. Sweet Sr., $120,000

HBG FAQ: Welcome to Harrisburg. Now read this.

September 28, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

Illustration by Rich Hauck.

Recently, I got an early tour of Harrisburg’s newest boutique apartment building.

At the Bogg on Cranberry, the units are fresh and beautiful, but, sure, I understand the kneejerk response among locals when you mention the location—the heart of downtown’s entertainment district.

Who would want to live there, with a birds-eye view of whatever’s going down along 2nd Street late on a Saturday night?

It turns out—a lot of people.

When I was there, the place was buzzing with construction, swarms of workers measuring, hammering and sawing throughout the building’s 11,000 square feet of space. The 12 units had already been leased, well before the building was done. The first tenants were just weeks away from moving in, so the rush was on.

But who were these people and where were they coming from?

“From outside Harrisburg mostly,” said tour guide Brad Jones, CEO of Harristown Development, which owns the Bogg. “They’re newcomers.”

And, after this apartment building was done, Harristown had two more in the pipeline, larger projects on Pine Street, which will add another 69 units to the neighborhood.

That’s great, I thought—new blood, new spending money, a few extra bucks in the city’s pockets. But then I had another reaction, one that can best be described as, “Uh-oh.”

It was a selfish thought, but one born of experience. More new people meant more questions—or, actually, the same questions asked over and over and over again: What is this? Why is this? How do I?

Indeed, Harrisburg is a quirky place with numerous rules and customs you likely have never encountered coming from, say, D.C. or Pittsburgh or another similarly civilized city.

So, as a public service, I thought I’d dedicate this column to answering some of the questions that I’m most frequently asked. And welcome, newcomers, to the often endearing, sometimes perplexing little city that is now your home.

Why is the city called Harrisburg?
The Harris family, natch. You can visit where they lived, then, risking your life, cross the street and see where they’re dead. If you’re new to town, a visit to the Harris Mansion is a must.

Why is such a tiny city the capital of such a large state?
Geography, politics, free land. But buck up. I’ve been to Jefferson City, Mo.

Is Harvey Taylor more than a bridge?
Back in the 1940s and ‘50s, Harvey Taylor was a powerful state lawmaker and powerbroker. But, today, yes, he’s basically a bridge.

So, what, um, happened to Harrisburg?
Depression, deindustrialization, suburbanization, flood, flood, flood. Every city has an off century now and again. So, yes, Harrisburg remains a work in progress. But, trust me, it’s a zillion times better than a decade or two ago.

Who’s this Steve Reed guy I keep hearing about?
Steve Reed was Harrisburg’s mayor for 28 years and, to mangle a phrase from Homer J. Simpson, he was either the cause of—or the solution to—all of Harrisburg’s problems.

I hear that Harrisburg went through some kind of financial crisis. How’d that happen?
Do you know that old cliché about your eyes being bigger than your belly? It’s like that, but, instead of food, the city ate an incinerator, a bunch of museums, parking garages, a university, a baseball stadium and a hundred other things. Essentially, one little city ordered everything on the menu then couldn’t pay its bill.

Is Harrisburg now out of the woods financially?
Maybe.

Why is there a Civil War museum in Harrisburg?
The phony answer is because the war almost reached the city. The real answer is because Steve Reed wanted one here. Just be glad that you’re not asking, “Why is there a Wild West museum in Harrisburg?”

OMG, I heard a gun battle at 7 o’clock this morning!
Those are just duck hunters, because that’s allowed in the middle of a densely populated city, for some reason. Unless it was a gun battle. But it probably was duck hunters.

OMG, I heard explosions at 10 o’clock tonight!
Those were just fireworks. Unless they were explosions. But they probably were just fireworks, to the great distress of every dog in the city.

Speaking of dogs, is it true that Harrisburg is about to get its first public dog park?
It is true, thanks to the good people at Friends of Midtown. For such a small city, Harrisburg is full of wonderful civic and church groups trying to move us in the right direction. Find one that interests you. Become part of the solution.

Will the 3rd Street repaving project ever get done?
That’s what they tell me. Ditto the two-way 2nd Street conversion and the river walk rehab.

Dammit, I’m really mad about schools, parking and street cleaning. I’m gonna give the city a piece of my mind!
You’re not actually mad at the city government, but you are mad at the Harrisburg school district, Park Harrisburg and Capital Region Water, respectively. You’ll need to go complain to them.

I almost got hit crossing Front/Forster/State streets. I’m gonna march right down to city hall . . .
Stop. Also not controlled by the city. They’re state roads. So, you’re gonna have to march right down to PennDOT for satisfaction. And good luck with that. I’ve been trying for years.

What’s the deal with all the bugs?
Yes, the annual outbreak of mayflies is pretty gross, but that’s the small price you pay for living along a wide, gorgeous river.

What’s the deal with all the spiders?
When you have billions of mayflies, you get millions of spiders.

Why does this tiny city have so many fantastic restaurants?
Lawmakers, lawyers and lobbyists like to eat, and we’re the lucky beneficiaries. So, we can all eat and drink ourselves silly thinking about all the land we can’t tax.

What, pray tell, is the Harrisburg beaver?
My new friend, the elusive Harrisburg beaver is a mysterious beast, as deep as the river, as fleet as the freeway and as pleasant as a mid-February day.

Harrisburg’s a weird little place, isn’t it?
Yup. How great is that?

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