Statement Regarding Tree Removal at GMSD

Attention Governor Mifflin School District Community,

We have heard a number of citizen concerns regarding the trees which have been removed from the Governor Mifflin School District grounds on Tuesday, July 26^th. While the removal of trees is never pleasant to see, and the choice to do so was not an easy decision to come to, this was deemed necessary to advance the construction at the middle school and high school campuses.

At the high school campus, the trees were deemed necessary to remove in order to reconfigure and extend the parking lot; over the years, our staff, students, and community have outgrown this space and as a result, we have grappled with traffic and congestion at the beginning and end of school days and during events. Making this change will allow us to implement a traffic pattern that is safer and more accessible to all in our community. At the middle school, trees have been removed for a future extension of parking and the installation of a stormwater infiltration basin, which will ease our load on the storm sewer during periods of heavy rain and snow. We will also be installing rain gardens to naturally dissipate water and bring more local greenery to our campus.

As a district we have pledged to replace all trees which are removed during the construction process at a minimum of a 1:1 ratio, meaning every tree which is taken down will be replaced with a new tree during or upon completion of the project. We have also taken several steps to reduce our environmental impact in other areas of the project, including energy-efficient upgrades throughout our existing buildings to reduce our carbon footprint.

At every stage of this project, we have remained steadfast in our belief that this work must be carried out responsibly in every sense of the word. We have worked closely with the teams at Schraeder Group, SiteLogiq, and several outside experts to ensure that this is the case.

For more information regarding the tree removal or Governor Mifflin Building Project, please refer to our Building Project website at https://sites.google.com/gostangs.org/governor-mifflin-building-proj/environmental-impact?authuser=0. Regular updates are also provided at every Governor Mifflin School Board of Directors work meeting which is held at 7:00 PM at the Governor Mifflin Education Center on the first Monday of each month; meeting recordings are available on our website for those who are unable to attend.

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we navigate this next stage in the Governor Mifflin Building Project

Sincerely,
Governor Mifflin School District