East Stroudsburg Area SD presents five facilities options as JM Hill community presses for numbers, transit fixes and preservation

Superintendent Maggie Vitale opened a packed East Stroudsburg Area School District town‑hall, saying the meeting was intended to gather public feedback on a consultant’s facilities study and that “we're not making a decision now.” RLPS Architects then summarized district building conditions, enrollment trends and five high‑level options the board asked staff to develop, and announced a community survey and a February board review of the priority matrix.

The consultants described the district as having buildings built from the 1920s through about 2008, roughly 1,400,000 square feet of facility space and about 6,200 students at the time of the study. They said enrollment has declined from about 6,899 to 6,244 over the last decade and explained that PlanCon capacity calculations differ from how the district actually uses space (the consultants said districts typically operate near 80% of PlanCon capacity). RLPS presented five options: A) status quo (maintain all buildings); B) status quo with targeted renovation/rebuild of JM Hill and elementary realignment; C) right‑size by removing one elementary (potentially selling or retiring JM Hill); D) grade realignment with one intermediate and two high schools plus possible…