PORT ANGELES — Franklin Elementary School has received a temporary reprieve by the Port Angeles School District board, which decided Monday night to reject a recommendation to close the 57-year-old school.
The reprieve is temporary, and the school is on notice that it will be closed in the near future, board members said.
“This is a $2 million Band-Aid you got tonight, but it’s going to be ripped off in the next 24 months,” board member Lonnie Linn told a group of 80 teachers and parents who packed the Port Angeles Senior and Community Center at Seventh and Peabody streets in support of keeping the school.
A blue-ribbon task force made up of parents, teachers, administrators and staff members was selected in September to find a way to reorganize the district’s elementary schools to address declining enrollments and state revenue losses.
On Dec. 5, the panel released a recommendation to close Franklin Elementary School, reassign students to the district’s other four schools, then sell three unused school properties and the district’s downtown Port Angeles headquarters to pay for another wing at Jefferson Elementary School.
In the past year, the district lost 126 elementary school students, and it could be 15 years before the trend reverses, Schools Superintendent Jane Pryne said.
“That’s $700,000 just in loss of students,” Pryne said.
Meanwhile, the state continues to cut the education budget, and no one knows yet what cuts the district may see in the 2012-14 biennium, she said.
Five parents and teachers addressed the board, complaining of the short notice that they had that the school was on the chopping block.
They offered to help fundraising efforts, time on committees to help find other answers, and offered reasons why the school must remain open — history, excessive busing for students and overcrowding.
The district would have to find room for 11 classrooms worth of students in other schools, they said.
The board unanimously rejected the plan to close the school, citing concerns that the plan did not adequately address how the remaining schools could take on the additional 400 Franklin students without creating overly large class sizes and adding temporary classrooms.
Shutting down Franklin Elementary, at the corner of Lauridsen Boulevard and Washington Street in southeast Port Angeles, would cause confusion and major displacement of staff and teachers, with 50-60 teachers transferring through the district as senior teachers at Franklin displace less-senior teachers at other schools, Linn said.
Board President Patti Happe proposed creating a permanent committee to set up a more controlled, planned-out reorganization of the elementary schools and closure of Franklin Elementary.
Keeping Franklin open is not optional, but the closure should be done more thoughtfully, she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
