PORT ANGELES — The task force that triggered the closing of Monroe Elementary School in 2004 was ordered reactivated Monday to analyze more cost-cutting measures in the Port Angeles School District.
Schools Superintendent Gary Cohn recommended to the School Board to reassemble the Facilities Efficiency Task Force.
The board voted 4-0 for reassembling the task force. Cindy Kelly abstained from the vote because, she said, the public was not notified prior to the meeting that action would be taken.
The School Board’s newest member, Patti Happe, was designated to be the board’s representative on the task force.
Happe is the former president of the Monroe Parent-Teacher Organization and was one of the leading critics of closing the school in 2004.
There was no indication Monday that another closure was in the offing.
But deep cutbacks could be, based on lessening state revenues because of declining enrollments in the next five years.
Declining enrollments
Cohn’s request to reassemble the task force came on the heels of new enrollment projections that show the district losing about $1.8 million annually over the next six years.
A steep enrollment decline that started during the 1998-99 school year seemed to be slowing down in recent years, Cohn said.
However, the “shallowing” of the decline wasn’t enough, he said.
The district has lost 829 full-time students since 1998, representing about $4.1 million in lost revenue from the state each year.
Enrollment at the end of the 2004-05 school year was 4,247 full-time students, a new all-time low for the district.
Projections for the 2005-06 school year has the district losing an additional 130 students.
“The shallowing didn’t continue,” Cohn said.
“That’s disappointing, but it what it is.”
