PORT ANGELES — Franklin Elementary School could be closed within the next few years under three possible recommendations released Wednesday by the Port Angeles School District elementary school reorganization task force.
All three plans would close the 57-year-old building, but the timing of the closure would be up to the School Board if it approves the final recommendation when it is presented Dec. 12.
Choosing which of the three recommendations will be submitted to the School Board in December depends on what the public has to say during the next couple of weeks, in addition to more research, said Superintendent Jane Pryne.
Comments will be accepted through Monday, Nov. 28.
The district commissioned the task force to research ways to reorganize the elementary schools so that the district can lower its costs while addressing a long pattern of declining enrollment.
Plans also deal with changing configurations of schools and possibly busing students out of their neighborhoods.
Attendance lines would need to be redrawn if Franklin is closed, Pryne said, adding that the additional cost of busing children to different schools still needs to be calculated.
“After we collect the input, we’ll sit down as a task force and make one recommendation,” she said.
Both of the first two options add a future possibility of closing and selling the Central Services Building, where the district offices are housed, and selling the Franklin and Fairview Elementary School properties.
Fairview, 166 Lake Farm Road, was closed in 2007 for much the same reasons as the district faces now.
The sales would fund the addition of a third wing on Jefferson Elementary School to accommodate students from Franklin.
The Franklin Elementary School at 2505 S. Washington St. is under consideration for closure because of its age.
The cost of repair of the school, which was built in 1954, would be nearly the same as full replacement, according to a 2008 study of all district buildings.
The task force report concluded that “Franklin is reaching the end of its serviceable life” and should be closed.
It’s also one of two schools in central Port Angeles, located seven blocks east of Jefferson Elementary, one of the newest buildings in the district.
In October, the district had 106 fewer elementary students than it did in October 2010.
Only one of the district’s five elementary schools had more than 400 students.
State funding is reduced if enrollment falls below 400 students per school.
“Looking at this strategically, we had to ask how long can we sustain five elementary schools,” Pryne said.
Trends examined by the task force indicate the district will lose more students in the next five to 15 years, she said.
The district’s three plans are offered in no particular order, Pryne said.
Their numbering is random; there is no preferred plan, she said.
The plans are:
■ Plan 1 — Under this plan, Franklin would be closed.
Jefferson and Hamilton would become K-2 primary schools while Roosevelt and Dry Creek would house students in third, fourth and fifth grade.
The concept is known as “banding” schools by grade level.
Banded schools allow grade-specific programs to be concentrated, such as keeping the band and orchestra teachers at one or two upper-grade-level schools, and early music teachers at one or two lower-grade-level schools, instead of spreading each of them across five campuses.
“It offers a more effective model for academic specialists to serve students,” the task force concluded.
■ Plan 2 — Franklin would be closed in this plan, as in Plan 1, but the remaining elementary schools would remain K-6 schools.
Each of the district programs — such as the multiage community, special-needs and early learning programs — would be placed in a single school.
The advantage of the second plan is that medically fragile students already attend Roosevelt, where classrooms have been altered for the use of these students, the task force reported.
Keeping the K-6 model also avoids transitions at the third grade and builds a sense of school community, the report said.
■ Plan 3 — This plan also would close Franklin but more slowly than the other plans.
It would keep Roosevelt a K-6 school and convert the other four schools to K-2 primaries and two 3-5 elementary schools.
It combines the advantages of concentrating academic specialists at the “banded schools” with the K-6 option for intervention programs and special-education classrooms at Roosevelt, the task force said.
Under this plan, a new wing would be built at Jefferson, and Franklin would eventually be closed and its students moved to other schools.
Pryne said there is no exact time line for the closure of Franklin.
Funds from the sale of school property must, by state law, be used for capital projects, Pryne said.
“It cannot be used for operations,” she said.
The full report can be seen at www.portangelesschools.org.
The online survey, at http://tinyurl.com/6mqfztc, provides a place for members of the public to comment on each plan or offer ideas that may not have been considered by the task force.
Comments also will be accepted by email at infor@portangelesschools.org or through the mail.
Mail can be sent to the Port Angeles School District, Attn: Elementary Reorganization Task Force, 216 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles, WA 98362.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
