Saint Clair students in grades 9-12 have been a part of the PASD family since 1989. Pottsville fought to keep the students a part of the family, and October 7, the Saint Clair school board decided to keep their high school students at PAHS.

Pottsville’s newest bid called for Saint Clair to pay $1.6 million per year or choose to pay $16 million for a longer commitment of 10 years. The offer is based on a flat rate. This new bid was enough to convince Saint Clair to keep students at PAHS.

“We wanted to keep the Saint Clair students in our school district family and be able to give those students a high quality education,” Mrs. Linda Grube, school board member, said.

At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, Saint Clair began accepting merger proposals from any schools in a 10-mile radius of the town. Pottsville placed its original bid in June. It called for Saint Clair to pay $27,442,187 for a 10-year period. The latest bid was almost an $11.5 million dollar decrease from what Pottsville originally requested.

The lowest bid that Saint Clair received was from North Schuylkill. The district said it would ask Saint Clair to pay around $1,454,800 for a 10-year period. Although this was the cheapest offer, North Schuylkill’s proposal included the possibility of singling out the Saint Clair students by naming their own valedictorian and salutatorian and also giving graduates Saint Clair diplomas.

The Saint Clair school board discussed its options October 7. The members then voted on which bid was the best, and their choice was Pottsville. They looked to the public for comment before they placed their votes.

“Providing an excellent education to all of our students was the most crucial thing. In addition to the solid education, remaining with Pottsville does preserve the school pride and sense of community that has been building over many years with our SC and Pottsville partnerships,” Mrs. Jeanette Zembas, Saint Clair school board vice president, said.

If the Saint Clair students had ended up leaving the high school, class size and involvement in extracurricular activities like sports and clubs would have decreased since there are around 200 Saint Clair students enrolled at the high school. Many of these students did not want to leave the Castle on the Hill.

“I wanted to stay at Pottsville because of all the endless opportunities it has to offer. If I were to go to another school, I would have been sad to leave behind all of my friends and dedicated teachers. Pottsville is a wonderful school and would be difficult to part with,” sophomore Jessica Turnitza said.