To close or not to close?

BONNERS FERRY — Close Naples Elementary or don’t to close Naples Elementary?

That is the question  being put forth before voters on June 8 by the Boundary County School District.

The vote to permanently close Naples Elementary School is set for Tuesday, June 8, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at all elementary schools and the middle school.

The school board presented the district’s financial situation, how they came to this decision and the potential plans for after the vote at a special meeting on Wednesday, May 26.

The Idaho Legislature cut funding for the 2009/2010 school year by 2.63 percent and has cut the funding by 7.5 percent for the 2010/2011 school year, with the potential of another 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent in February 2011.

That equates to $538,504 reducing funding this year and $754,338 for the 2010/2011 school year.

Boundary County School District trustees are predicting a $81,000 shortfall in average daily attendance (ADA) funding because 40 fewer migrant students expected to enroll.

Total budget cut for the 2010/2011 school year is $835,338.

Board members created a list of items that cut $587,316 from the budget.

These cuts include having no school the week of Thanksgiving, no kindergarten noon buses and migrant bus runs, curriculum cuts, reducing the temperature by two degrees in the buildings, not replacing two teachers, reducing custodial purchased services, reducing travel expenses and classroom supplies, and no tuberculosis testing.

Also, there will be reduced summer maintenance, no field trips and the district will purchase one school bus, instead of two.

“That is where it got real serious,” said Sup. Don Bartling, after district officials realized they still needed to cut $248,022. The possibility of closing an elementary school was looked at in detail.

Cost to operate Evergreen Elementary is $471,324, Mt. Hall Elementary is $524,324 and Naples Elementary is $568,330.

The savings for each school, if closed, would be $238,349 for Evergreen, $178,880 for Mt. Hall and Naples, $246,221. Those figures  do not include savings in teachers’ salaries, because would be transferred within the district, Bartling said.

Next, trustees looked at the cost per pupil at each outlying school.

Based on funding from the state per child minus the cost per child, the revenue per child is  negative $171 at Evergreen,  plus $133 at Mt. Hall and a negative $920 at Naples.

Naples students receive less funding per child than the other two outlying schools because  the school is not a rural school as defined by Idaho Code because it is within 10 miles of the superintendent’s office and a similar (elementary) school.

“That is what the school district looked at in making the decision,” said Bartling.

Naples is the only school that requires a vote to close because it was an independent school district before the consolidation of the 15 school districts in Boundary County in 1947. According to Idaho Code 33-511, a vote is necessary to close Naples Elementary.

Cindy Orr, Valley View Principal, presented the plan for consolidation if Naples Elementary is voted for closure.

Teachers from Naples Elementary would replace retiring teachers and fill last year’s lost position at Valley View. One teacher would teach physical education at Mt. Hall and Evergreen and another would teach art and music classes at all three elementary schools.

The projected enrollment for Valley View next year without the consolidation is 340 students. The addition of the students from Naples Elementary would increase it to 465, well below the 550 students allowed at Valley View, Orr  said.

Projected class sizes are 24 for kindergarden, 20 students for first grade, 18 students for second grade, 23 students for third grade, 26 students for fourth grade and 25 students for fifth grade. “It is close to what we are now,” said Orr.

“We don’t need portables,” she said. There will be a shuffling of classrooms, the library and Title 1 classrooms to make the layout the most efficient.

There would be three lunch periods with kindergarden and first grade together, second and third grade together, and fourth and fifth grade together.

“This would work out really well,” Orr said, since similar age groups will be together during lunch and on the playground.

With the consolidation, all Valley View students would have full time access to a counselor, a principal and Life Skills services. The school nurse would also travel less.

All students in the district would have 40 minutes of art and music instruction each week, along with 40 minutes of physical education twice a week. “A first in the community,” said Curriculum Coordinator Jan Bayer. “We feel it will improve the student’s academic achievements.”

Other potential plans include a move over day for Naples Elementary teachers, a parent meeting before school starts, a meet the teacher afternoon for students, and Valley View t-shirts for all students to show unity, Orr said.

If patrons vote to keep Naples Elementary open, the school board has created a list of other areas to cut funding with no particular order yet.             One option is to run the election again if it is a minimal majority, but “we would have to wait nine months,” said board chairman Melanie Staples.             Consolidating Evergreen Elementary or Mt. Hall Elementary or both is an option.

Other options include cutting the teacher salary base, cutting a percentage off certified staff salaries and administrative salaries, taking more furlough days, changing the employee insurance benefits and/or enforcing school district boundaries.

In response to questions, Naples Elementary’s technology will be moved to Valley View, along with the Naples special education program and staff.

The 2004 study entitled: “A Feasibility Study For Merging the Boundary County Rural Elementary Schools into Valley View Elementary” was discussed by the school board.

“I wrote the study,” said Bartling, “at the request of the Restructuring Committee when we had problems passing the Maintenance and Operations Levy.”

The purpose was to see how to make more efficient schools. After reading the study, the committee’s looked at other options,resulting in the four-day school week.

“The school board is not familiar with the report,” said Bartling, “it has been gathering dust since February 2005.”

“We did talk about it, but we don’t have it on the table right now,” said Staples.

“This is a very serious issue,” said Bartling. “The board has been very thorough in their ideas and are still open to ideas.”

“Your school board members receive no compensation,” said Darrell Kerby, former Bonners Ferry mayor. “They are not gaining anything.”

“I care very deeply about our rural schools,” said Bartling. “ I realized I was putting the rest of the district in danger by trying to keep all the rural schools open.”

A copy of the presentation is available on the District’s website at www.bcsd101.com.