PORT ANGELES — School officials say they are looking at alternatives to prevent the closure of Monroe Elementary School, but they say choices are limited because the budget has already been trimmed by millions of dollars.
The Port Angeles School District board will decide June 14 if the school will be what district administrators called “mothballed” on June 30.
“Someone asked me if we didn’t have a budget deficit projected next year, would we still be looking at closing Monroe School,” School Board President Charlie McClain said Friday.
“The answer is yes.
“It is not all about the current deficit. It is about more than $2.5 million of cuts in the past and the future cuts that would have to be made.”
School Board members voted 4-1 on March 8 to begin a 90-day legal process to close Monroe School to offset a projected $300,000 deficit in the district’s 2004-05 budget.
Many School Board members have said repeatedly that the district cannot afford to operate six small elementary schools when faced with current and projected enrollment figures.
One vote against process
But board member Cindy Kelly disagrees.
Kelly was the only member of the five-person board who voted against initiating the 90-day closure process.
“I am taking a close look at the budget to see what else can be cut, and I think there are some other things that can be done,” Kelly said.
Kelly said she wants board members, district officials, parents, teachers and other community members to have an open mind and work together to solve the district’s budget problems.
“We really need to work together to solve these problems,” she said.
Kelly said she hopes to bring several budget-cutting recommendations to the table during a board meeting before the June vote.
Parents’ suggestions
During public hearings and board meetings, Monroe parents have suggested alternatives closing the school while plugging the budget holes.
McClain said board members are listening to parent and community recommendations and will study them over the next month.
Some of the suggestions include renting, leasing or selling the district’s Central Services Building; using voter-approved Initiative 728 funding to keep the school in operation; reducing district travel; cutting out all middle school interscholastic sports; eliminating orchestra programs at the fourth and fifth-grade levels; and asking voters to support higher maintenance and operations levies in the future.
Kelly said she, too, is looking into the possibility of using I-728 funds to keep Monroe in operation, and said some other areas of the budget — such as professional development — could be reduced to save money.
“I know it is important to the teachers, but if we can’t afford it, then we need to consider cutting it,” she said.
Union considerations
Schools Superintendent Gary Cohn said cutting professional development spending cannot be done because district officials and officials from the teachers’ union bargained and agreed to a set amount of teacher training.
Board members and district officials said increased levy support, if approved by voters throughout the district, will not offset the projected deficit for the 2004-05 school year.
The next levy replacement election is likely to be scheduled for March 2005.
If passed, levy funds would not be available to the district until May 2006.
“That means it won’t help any of 2004-05, and could help only in the last half of 2005-06,” Cohn said.
