PORT ANGELES — The school district on Tuesday released its analysis of the proposed closure and realignment plan known as Option D and answers to questions raised during the public comment period.
The option calls for the closure of Fairview School on the Port Angeles School District’s eastern edge, realigning elementary and middle schools and sending all seventh- and eighth-graders to Stevens Middle School.
Roosevelt Middle School would become an elementary school.
“School Closure Report 2” was posted on the school district’s Web site, www.portangelesschools.org, at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Implementation of the closure and realignment plan depends upon passage of a levy in a February election, Superintendent Gary Cohn said.
“All this analysis assumes the four-year levy on the February ballot is in place because it is 17 percent of our budget,” he said.
He didn’t think the closure and realignment decision would negatively impact the levy election, Cohn said.
Option before board
The School Board will review the report prior to Monday’s meeting, when it is scheduled to affirm the school closure and realignment plan.
The meeting will begin with “Community Conversations” at 6 p.m., followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m. at Stevens Middle School, 1139 W. 14th St.
Cohn said after the analysis of public comments and other research, he sees nothing to prevent the school district from implementing Option D.
The option’s key changes call for closing Fairview, making Roosevelt an elementary school up to the sixth grade, realigning Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton and Dry Creek elementary schools to include sixth-graders; and putting all seventh- and eighth-graders at Stevens.
Option D is designed to address declining enrollments, which in turn have sharply curtailed state revenues.
