Unionville High School

'Tall tale' saga continues: no ruling on HS aud. variance

The district asked for another 30 days to produce such documentation — from the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company (the primary responder) and the Longwood Fire Company — and now a second continuance of the hearing is expected to be held on Sept. 6.

The delay is not expected to impact the start of school — scheduled for Aug. 29 — according to district spokesperson Rich Hug. Hug said that the district has a conditional certificate of occupancy that would allow use of the new auditorium and adjoining renovated areas of the school until the issue is resolved.

Little has changed since the hearing of July 7 on the matter — after it appeared that the township and the school district had reached a deal on the height of the new high school auditorium, a 58-foot structure in a zone township officials say only permits a building height of 35 feet. While school officials disagree with that interpretation of the zoning ordinance, both sides agreed to support the district seeking a variance for the building height before the Zoning Hearing Board.

But without the written sign off from the fire companies, ZHB members said they felt they could not rule on the variance application.

“The record is not complete” ZHB chairman Thomas Simpers said. “We have no written confirmation from the local fire companies as to their ability to handle the height of the building. We would like to know if at least one of the local fire companies can handle an emergency at the building.”

Although there was some transmission of information regarding fire safety from the district to the ZHB, members were pretty specific about wanting a formal sign off from the local companies — at least one of them — that they had the proper equipment to fight a fire at the height of the building, not just to protect those who might be in the building, but potentially local volunteer firefighters.

The current ordinances and height restrictions were designed around what had been the maximum height local fire companies could safely fight fires, board members said. Larger equipment and newer technologies have come on line in recent years to expand that capacity — but the board said they wanted assurances in writing from the fire companies that the 58-foot building would not represent a hazard.

Science stars shine at Unionville High School » Chester County Press

Shea’s project began when she was a freshman. Now, having finished her sophomore year, she has reached a level that few students ever see. Her project involves organisms that could aid in oil spill remediation.

This summer, she’s at Harvard University in Boston, studying biology and journalism. Speaking by phone this week, she said competing at the international Science Fair “was one of the most life-changing experiences ever. It was very nerve-wracking to look around the exhibit hall and see projects that I couldn’t even understand the title of, let alone what they’d done. At the same time, seeing international students and students from this country who were doing such innovative work was really inspiring for me to continue researching and continue doing Science Fair. Overall, it was just an incredible experience.”

Although she wasn’t a medal winner at the international level, she did place in the upper third of her division, Anderson said, which was a major accomplishment for a high-school sophomore. “In any activity like this, for every nine roads you go down, there are eight of them that don’t bear any fruit,” Anderson said. “Most kids would get discouraged and abandon it. But she’s extremely tenacious,” he said of Shea. “She has a combination of biology and chemistry and math and graphic design skills – the complete package for a 10th grader.”

This summer, Anderson is working with another Unionville High student, Bill Miller, who has gotten financial support from the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to continue his research. The Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale is letting Miller work in their lab. He is investigating a kind of bacteria, wolbachia, that can reverse gender in insects and related organisms. The project could lead to advancements in the fight against malaria, by reducing the number of the insects that can reproduce and spread disease.

“His work is at Stroud because the center is right on the White Clay Creek,” Anderson said. “He’s doing a survey of the incidence of this organism in aquatic insects.”

During an interview at Stroud this week, Miller said the chance to work at the research center “is a great opportunity.”

Wolbachia, he said, “is one of the most common microbes on earth. … For example, in heartworm, which is what dogs get, wolbachia is the bacteria that is carried within the parasite that’s so dangerous.

Unionville High School (Ontario)

Unionville High School(kennett Square, Pennsylvania)

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