Study urges closing 4 D-11 elementaries, expanding three schools to K-8

November 5, 2008 – 11:22AM
SUE McMILLIN
THE GAZETTE

Four elementary schools would close in Colorado Springs School District 11 over the next few years and other schools would have new grade-level groupings or magnet programs under recommendations offered Wednesday night in a new School Utilization Study.

The report was met with some skepticism and plenty of questions by the D-11 board, whose members emphasized that it was the first step in deciding whether the district should close schools or take other steps to improve efficiency. One concern voiced by several board members was why there was no recommendation to close a middle school, the level where the district has the greatest overcapacity. Instead, the report recommended creating three kindergarten-8th grade schools – in West and Irving middle schools and Trailblazer Elementary School.

The report recommended closing Buena Vista, Hunt, Whittier and Longfellow elementary schools for an annual savings of about $1.4 million in operating costs.

It also recommended moving the comprehensive high school program out of Wasson High School and making it a focused arts school while bolstering the comprehensive program at Mitchell High School. That scenario would reduce the student population at Wasson, so a wing of the school could accommodate all of the district’s administration functions except technology.

But the bulk of the report was compilations of data on achievement, special programs, building use and condition for the district’s 56 classroom buildings, which were then used to calculate numerical evaluations for each building. That information was combined with demographic studies to show where the district needs the most classroom space, how it could attract students from neighboring districts and programs that would promote achievement. The study was completed by Lantz-Boggio Architects P.C. and Western Demographics Inc. and presented Wednesday by Shannon Bingham of Western.

The power point presentation is to be posted on the District 11 Web site.

“We’re going to digest this and we’re going to talk about this,” board member Jan Tanner said, echoing other board members’ comments that the amount of data were overwhelming.

After the presentation, Superintendent Terry Bishop said he believes the board must first decide whether it wants to consider any of the grade level realignments, such as a school for kindergarten through second grade or the K-8 concept. If it does, other decision will follow logically.

For example, the recommendation to convert West to a K-8 school also included closing Whittier Elementary School and moving those students to West. The recommended closure of Buena Vista would include combining its students with those of Washington and Bristol into two schools, one for K-2 and the other for grades 3-5.

Such schools have been successful in other states and allow teachers to collaborate more with others who teach the same grades, Bishop said. The K-8 concept tends to appeal to larger families who have several children in schools or those who don’t like the larger, less personal middle schools.

While board members expressed interest in exploring the various possibilities, they were concerned that the district would still have too many buildings for its shrinking enrollment.

“You didn’t address the middle school issue as directly as I would have liked,” board president Tami Hasling said. “We have so many seats in our middle schools and we’re not addressing that.

“We may want to consider a middle school closure.”

Bingham said he suggested the K-8 models because they’ve been very popular with families in other districts. In fact, he said, in some districts the K-8 schools are the most successful in terms of student achievement.

The recommendations also tried to focus on what made the most sense geographically, such as placing the K-8 schools on the west, east and north sides where they might attract students from neighboring districts.

Another portion of the report focused on “curriculum stranding” a trend where certain programs are offered from elementary through high school in a similar geographical location. For example, the report suggests an International Baccaulaureate program in two or three elementaries, two middle schools and one high school. D-11 offers the academically rigorous program now in three schools, one at each level.

The board will take up the report again next week at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Tesla Educational Opportunity Center. It will also receive from the administration an outline of several key decisions it must make in the coming months, including the hiring of a new superintendent, development of a budget and a plan to close the achievement gap and decrease the dropout rate.

“The idea is to give us focus,” Hasling said. “We do have a lot of work before us.”