PORT ANGELES — Keep all schools open was the message more than 200 parents, students and community members delivered Thursday to the Port Angeles School District board during the final public hearing on closing Monroe Elementary School.
“Please don’t close any school,” Franklin Elementary School first-grader Caroline Rooney, 6, said to the five-member board.
She said if Monroe closes, her school would be crowded and expressed concerns about the lunch lady having to cook more food.
Parents of Monroe students echoed the same sentiment again and again as they took their turns at the microphone — save our school.
“I have been asked when I think a school closure would be justified,” said Monroe Parent-Teacher Organization President Patti Happe.
“I think it should be considered if, and only if, the resulting schools were still small enough to provide a quality education, there were quality facilities to receive all the kids, and there was a clear indication that there was a continuing declining trend in elementary enrollment.
“None of those conditions exist now.”
Board members, who took no action Thursday night, were also presented with a stack of petitions containing more than 1,900 signatures purportedly from people opposing the closure of Monroe or any school.
Projected deficit
School Board members voted 4-1 on March 8 to begin the 90-day process to close Monroe to overcome a projected $300,000 deficit in the district’s 2004-05 budget.
They have said the district can no longer afford to operate six small elementary schools in light of current and projected enrollment figures.
Several suggestions to save money and keep open Monroe School, 102 Monroe Road, were made during the hearing.
Suggestions included renting or leasing the district’s Central Services Building on Fourth Street, reducing district travel, cutting all middle school interscholastic sports, cutting orchestra programs at the fourth and fifth-grade levels, using voter-approved Initiative-728 funding to keep the school in operation, and asking voters for increased maintenance and operations levies.
School Board President Charlie McClain thanked parents for their input and said all suggestions would be carefully considered.
“We have a lot to consider,” he said.
“Thank you for your suggestions, and good luck to you all.”
