Educational consultant Dan Dancu thinks the Center Area and Monaca school districts should merge, and should use Center Grange Primary for all children K-2.

Not that anyone's asking.

Don Boyer, also a consultant, said there is "no economic reason or educational reason this merger would not benefit both school districts," and that Monaca's high school would make an ideal middle school with no renovations at all.

Not that anyone's asking him, either.

Those questions on the capacity of Center Grange to hold both Monaca and Center children and on the need for renovations at Monaca's high school loomed large last Thursday night at a public merger meeting held by the Center Area school board.

Cited by Center Area board members as reasons for delaying action on merging with neighboring Monaca, the questions arise from apparent discrepancies between reports from Center Area Superintendent Dan Matsook and reports from independent consultants. Both have caused board members to doubt Dr. Matsook's diligence.

But both were easily answered by the consultants -- who both said no one had ever asked them.

"It's kind of odd," Dr. Boyer said, noting that state education officials had "offered to have me come meet with these folks, at no cost, at any time." No one had contacted him at all, he said.

Dr. Boyer, of Education Management Group, Harrisburg, delivered a financial report to the two school boards in September. It concluded that consolidation promised substantial savings.

It also noted, though, that Monaca's high school was dated, and estimated that it would take $6.6 million to $12.2 million "to renovate the building to meet current educational standards."

Since the current plan is to use that building as a middle school, Center Area board members said they were worried that they will either have to spend more money on the building or send their children to a school that's substandard.

"I want to make sure we're not sending our students into a situation which is not up to our standards," board member Ben Fratangeli said.

"We don't have to spend a penny on that building," Dr. Matsook assured him. "We can go over there tomorrow and be better off educationally."

But Mr. Fratangeli found that answer frustrating, given the black-and-white nature of Dr. Boyer's report. "Who should I believe?" he asked.

Dr. Boyer's answer? Believe Dr. Matsook.

"What we were talking about was what Monaca would have to do to bring it up to standards for its current use as a K-12 building," Dr. Boyer said by phone Friday. "You don't have to do anything to it to use it as a middle school."

His report, for instance, noted that the chemistry lab appeared to date from the 1960s. "There's no need to upgrade a chemistry lab unless you're going to continue to use it as a chemistry lab," he said. "It's fine for the kind of science demonstrations you do in middle school."

Similarly, his report noted that a kindergarten classroom in the building -- which is partly used for elementary children -- lacked a bathroom. If it's a middle school classroom, that's not an issue.

"That's the kind of thing they could ask if they talked to me in person," Dr. Boyer said. He said he's working on other projects in the region, and could easily meet with Center on May 5 or 7.

The capacity at Center Grange Primary was a similar question. Dr. Dancu's 2006 report said it had room for 462 children; Dr. Matsook's January report projected a merged enrollment of 516.

Board member Greg Paladina questioned that discrepancy, concerned that the plan would overcrowd the elementary school. Dr. Matsook said the report went by a simple formula, and did not count spaces within the building that were designed to be converted into classrooms. But like Mr. Fratangeli, Mr. Paladina was not satisfied with that answer.

He should be, said Dr. Dancu, of Ingraham Dancu and Associates, by phone Friday. "I've never been in the building," he said -- it was under construction when he did his report. His numbers were based on architectural drawings, and indeed were based only on areas set up for immediate use as classrooms.

With several areas in the building designed for conversion into classrooms, it could easily be expanded to accommodate 516 pupils using Dr. Dancu's formulas. And with enrollment likely to be less than that -- the 516 includes 175 kindergartners in each of the next two years, compared to the combined 166 now -- and the fact that some kindergarten rooms serve double duty, with morning and afternoon groups, he didn't see a problem.

In fact, Dr. Dancu said that when the state asked the districts last summer to choose a scenario for the use of buildings in a consolidated district, he was part of the group that chose the scenario with all the children going to Center Grange.

"That was the one that we thought was most workable," he said.

Dr. Dancu said a key point in that decision was that it would bring the children together from the beginning.

"I interviewed probably 500 students each at Center and at Monaca, as well as teachers," he said. "The feeling among all those people is that if you're going to have a conflict between groups, it's better to bring them together at an earlier age rather than bringing them together in middle school."

The other big selling point for the current plan is the middle school.

"I was a middle school principal at one time," he said. "I know how important a middle school building can be educationally."

Two of the competing scenarios would put all the middle school and high school children together at Center's middle school/high school complex. It would be crowded, but proponents say it can be done.

Dr. Dancu thinks it would be a mistake.

"They think they have the space for that, but they don't," he said. He said while elementary schools run well at 100 percent capacity, high schools operate best at 85 percent, since advanced classes seldom fill a 30-desk room. Middle schools should be at about 90 percent, he said.

Using Monaca's high school as a middle school would give those children a full facility of their own, complete with their own auditorium, a full-size gymnasium, athletic fields and training facilities. It would also create space at the high school for videoconferencing centers, language rooms and art rooms, and would eliminate potential conflicts with the middle school in terms of using facilities.

But like Dr. Boyer, Dr. Dancu said no one has contacted him with any questions.

"I'd be glad to talk to any board member," he said. "They need to decide what they want to do."

He said that he found little hesitation about consolidation when he interviewed students. Most, he said, were prepared to make it work and just wanted to get on with it.

"I was talking with one student at Monaca, and he said, 'Why are we talking about this so much? Let's just do it,' " Dr. Dancu said.

"In my experience with these things, all over the world, it's the kids that make it work, and it's the adults that make it fail."