In May, Weatherly residents made a pledge to their borough council: If you agree to take possession of the Mrs. C.M. Schwab School, we will raise the money to buy it.

Less than six months later, the Schwab School Restoration Project is within 90 percent of their fundraising goal to acquire the school."This is the real deal. If we have a strong 30 days, we're there," Charlie Palermo, the president of the project's board, said.The bank that owns the property has given them until Dec. 15 to come up with the money for the school, officials said.Board members say they need an additional $10,000 in pledges to make an offer that will be accepted."They have not told us why, they have some desire to have this closed by the end of the year, more specifically, Dec. 15," Palermo said.The board has received about 100 pledges from multiple states.An online fundraiser that brought attention to the project was closed because a portion would have gone to the website that hosted it, and the funds were added to the coffers.Now they are trying to reach anyone who may have been waiting to see if the fundraiser would be successful before making their donation."To put it out there and say, we're just shy of getting that building, there may be people out there who will say 'hey, this could be a reality, we will make this happen and make it work,' " Mayor Tom Connors said.Fundraising has been going on for months at events like the town's fall festival and Weatherly High School reunions.The board recently announced that donors of at least $100 will be recognized on publicly displayed recognition plaques. The plaques will be made for bronze ($100+); silver ($500+); gold ($1,000+); and platinum ($2,500+) level donations.The board has held two public meetings over the past month to get their message out to residents.Palermo said that the board didn't want someone to find out their financials and take the building out from underneath them.Phil Jeffries said that he also had concerns about the previous owner of the property, who let the property deteriorate to the point that it was cited by the borough, and defaulted on a mortgage on the property."It wasn't to spite any of the people that had an interest in this - it was to keep out the individual who used to own it, who might have had negative thoughts about what we were doing," Jeffries said.Palermo said there is very little deterioration in the original school building. He said when they toured the building earlier this year, it was in surprisingly good shape."The main building, the original building, is a fortress. The construction that was used on that building is unbelievable," he said.