The Kokomo School Board will take action on recommendations to close and consolidate schools at its meeting Wednesday evening.
Superintendent Chris Himsel said in February he would recommend accelerating the consolidation process to help the school corporation handle the $3.6 million cut in state funding in 2010. Gov. Mitch Daniels in December announced $300 million in cuts to state funding for Indiana’s schools.
The recommendations mean that Wallace and Washington elementary schools will close at the end of the school year, with their future use undetermined. Maple Crest Elementary and Bon Air Middle School also will close at the end of the year. Maple Crest will be a middle school when school re-opens for the 2010 to 2011 school year, and Bon Air will be an elementary.
The other elementary schools will be Lafayette Park, Elwood Haynes, Boulevard, Pettit Park and Sycamore schools.
Parents from schools being closed have suggested other schools be closed instead, but Himsel said there is no time to change the plans.
Dave Barnes, Kokomo-Center’s public relations consultant, said if the school board approves Himsel’s recommendation, all sixth- and seventh-graders will either attend Maple Crest or Central middle schools. Current seventh-graders at Lafayette Park and Bon Air middle schools will stay at their schools for eighth grade, he said, or they may move to Central or Maple Crest if they have younger siblings at those schools.
At the beginning of the 2011 to 2012 school year, all middle schoolers will be at Central or Maple Crest. The year delay in full implementation gives time for renovations to accommodate more students at Central.
Barnes said school officials hope to make staffing cuts through retirements and resignations, but Himsel said he cannot guarantee there will not be a reduction in force.
The school board approved consolidating from 11 elementaries to six and from four middle schools to two in December 2007, after an approximately 18-month process of town hall meetings and community focus groups studying enrollment, building needs and ages and corporation financial issues.
Consultants told the board the corporation had 2,000 more available student spaces than needed, which was the equivalent of having a building the size of Kokomo High School, with utilities and staff, but no students.
The board approved the specific schools that would stay open and those that would close in June 2008.
The board will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the administrative service center, 100 W. Lincoln Road.
• Danielle Rush is the Kokomo Tribune education reporter. She can be reached at 765-454-8585 or danielle.rush@kokomotribune.com.
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