Woodrow Wilson, Emerson Hough top closure list
For the first time, members of the NCSD Elementary Realignment and Boundary subcommittee publicly named which schools they believe should be closed if a school closure is approved.
Subcommittee members Sheri Benson, Darrin Hamilton and Don Poynter met Wednesday night to discuss their recommendation that will be presented to fellow board members on Monday.
Benson and Hamilton said they believed the school to close should be Woodrow Wilson Elementary School while Poynter stated Emerson Hough Elementary School should be shut down.
“I’m comfortable with closing a building at this point in time, comfortable with which one it needs to be and I’m comfortable with restructuring the facilities,” Benson said.
Poynter disagreed and stated that if a school closes it needs to be Emerson Hough Elementary School.
“I’d rather disrupt fewer families and fewer people,” Poynter said of why he earmarked Emerson Hough, citing the large student population in the southwest part of Newton. “There are a lot of reasons to keep Woodrow Wilson open even though it is not as nice as the other one.”
Benson said although she agreed fewer families may be disrupted if Woodrow Wilson remains open, she said she was looking at the long term benefits of keeping Emerson Hough open.
“Looking long term you have to look at the facility ... which offers the best environment to learn in,” she said. “I’d like Emerson Hough to be in a different part of town.”
Hamilton said if a school is to close it should be Woodrow Wilson and added he remains undecided if a building closure is absolutely necessary.
“I’m told we need to (close a school) but I just am needing to see it,” Hamilton said of his reservation to shutter doors on one of the district’s five elementary buildings.
While the members could not agree on which building or even if one should close, all three on the subcommittee said in the event a building is shut down the closure should happen in the fall and the district should implement a school structure where two facilities house pre-kindergarten through third-grade and the other two house fourth through sixth grade students.
The discussion of whether or not to close an elementary building has been ongoing and was spurred by Gov. Chet Culver’s statewide 10-percent across-the-board cuts which equals a roughly $1.5 million loss of state aid.
Culver’s cuts coupled with a declining student enrollment left the district having to find a way to make up nearly $2.5 million in a budget deficit.
To help balance the budget, along with a possible school closure the district officials are looking at a reduction of force of more than 28 full-time employees and additional part-time paraprofessional and coaching staff, cutting professional development and curricular expenses in 2010-2011, along with a reduction of one central office full-time employee for the 2011-2012 school year.
“We know that the implication of the decisions that are made will last a long time,” said NCSD Superintendent Steve McDermott of the decisions in front of the board.
A formal recommendation by the subcommittee and an additional recommendation by McDermott will be made at the school board meeting scheduled at 6 p.m. Monday at Berg Middle School Cafeteria.
“Decisions will be made with local girls and boys in mind. Our students are gonna come first no matter what,” McDermott said.
Jessica Lowe can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 426 or via e-mail at jlowe@newtondailynews.com.
