The small, one-story brick building was — and still is — the last remaining public school attended by Plain children in grades one through eight across Pennsylvania’s 501 districts.

“We weren’t operating a parochial school,” says Breniser, who retired in late 2004. “It was Conestoga Valley teachers, Conestoga Valley curriculum. It was a public school tolerant of the population.”

But the following two decades brought dramatic change — both to the field of education and to the Amish, who over time pulled their children out of the Upper Leacock Township school.

Now, saying there is a “movement away from the original mission of Penn Johns” to serve the Plain, the Conestoga Valley School Board is considering shuttering the school as soon as 2007, after 54 years.

“We’re the last school district that administers such a school,” said Gerald Huesken, the district superintendent. “Originally, the school district provided a service for the Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities.

“Currently there are no Amish. The Amish are going to their own schools,” he added. “It’s really getting away from our original mission.”

But parents who have children in the school, along Forest Hill Road between Brownstown and Leola, are prepared to fight to keep Penn Johns open. They value the quality, diversity and close-knit atmosphere of the school.

“The original mission was to educate students in the community, and the original mission is still in place,” said the mother of one student, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We are committed, as parents, to educating our children at Penn Johns. If that means we have to set up a charter school situation, then we’re willing to do it,” she said.

“We are, as parents, very, very disappointed that the district, instead of awarding this school for years of wonderful education they’ve given the community, is holding this over our heads,” she continued.

The school board has scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 16 in the middle school auditorium, at 500 Mount Sidney Road. It begins at 7:30 p.m. The snow date is Jan. 23.

Under state law, the board must then wait 90 days before voting on whether to close Penn Johns, which means the soonest a decision could come is in April. The board could decide to close the school as soon as 2007.

Thirty-five students are enrolled in the school, and most of them are Old Order Mennonite. Students in grades one through four attend class in one of the rooms, while those in grades five through eight sit in the other.

Huesken estimated that the district spends about $200,000 to run Penn Johns, which includes paying its two teachers and one aide. The district’s annual budget is $44.3 million.

The superintendent and school board members stress that no decision has been made. But in interviews and a separate prepared statement, the district laid out five reasons why it might close the school.

The first is the Amish community’s decision to teach their children in their own schools. Other parents, however, say there is one Amish student at the school, and point out that Penn Johns still teaches Old Order Mennonites.

“If you have 75 percent Plain, it’s still reaching that mission,” said Don Riker, the parent of a fifth-grader at the school.

But weighing more heavily into the school board decision-making process, members say, are strict new curriculum and teacher-certification standards that need to be met in upcoming years under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Among other things, the law makes it far more difficult for elementary-school teachers to also instruct children in middle-school grades.

“It pretty much cuts out most people with elementary certificates from teaching seventh grade,” said Idette Groff, the board president.“Being able to run the school the way it has to with just two people will become impossible.”

The law also requires middle-school teachers to pass a test in each subject they teach, meaning Penn Johns’ only upper-class teacher would need additional training in upcoming years.

“They’re continually changing the requirements, and they’re harder to provide in such a small setting,” said school board member Rosalind Bacon. “And we can’t be taxiing teachers back and forth for every core subject.”

District officials also cite safety concerns as a factor. “This is a two-room schoolhouse, out in the middle of nowhere,” said Huesken. “Especially in light of Nickel Mines, we’re concerned about that.”

On Oct. 2, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a father of three, stormed the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School in Bart Township and shot 10 young girls, five of whom died.

Parents of children in Penn Johns, however, say the district can overcome these obstacles. “I think the school needs to stay open and they need to work through the challenges as they do in all the rest of the schools,” Riker said.

Penn Johns is the last of nearly two dozen such public schools for Plain children that had been in operation in Upper Leacock, East Lampeter and West Earl townships decades ago, said Jack Evans, a retired director of curriculum who is considered a historian on the district.

The others were sold off, one by one, to the Amish, who used them as their own schoolhouses.

Huesken said that as the Amish pulled their children out of the school, the district was forced to boost enrollment by opening it up to non-Amish children in recent years. In fact, many parents who had home-schooled their children instead sent them to Penn Johns, said former principal Breniser.

Penn Johns was built in 1953, according to county land records. Other cite the date as 1951. Either way, it predates the Conestoga Valley School District’s formation, and was constructed by the now-defunct Upper Leacock school board at the urging of the Plain families.

The board purchased two acres of land, for $1,480, from two farmers. One family was related to William Penn, and the other was named Johns. The building itself cost about $60,000 to construct and was the focus of national attention in 1989 when it was visited by the first President Bush and his wife, Barbara, during a swing through the county.

This is not the first time a school board has considered shutting down the school. In 1995, it discussed closing Penn Johns in an effort to trim $110,000 from its budget. But the board decided against it after parents mounted a significant protest.

CONTACT US: tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021

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