A Look at Proposed School Closings and Budget Cuts

On Sept. 13, superintendent Gene Johnson presented 11 proposals to the Board of Education. His plan included closing Mission Valley and redistricting Brookwood and Trailwood elementary schools into the South attendance area following the current academic year. Dr. Johnson said the proposals could save the district more than $3.1 million annually by making the district’s building usage more efficient and keeping schools closer to their maximum capacity level.
This year, Mission Valley is operating at 48 percent of its capacity, according to district figures. Closing the school, Dr. Johnson said, would save the district $832,865 annually. The superintendent’s proposals also aim to better balance the number of students at each of the five high schools. Dr. Johnson’s plan to move Brookwood and Trailwood elementary schools to the South area would, by district projections, increase South’s enrollment to around 1,700 students by 2020. South currently is the smallest high school in the district in terms of population with an enrollment of 1,445 while East is the largest at 1,867.
If the district does nothing, Dr. Johnson said, East would continue to have between 350-370 more students than South each year through 2020. Even though East is built to house about 200 more people than South, under the Superintendent’s proposals East would actually end up with around 100 fewer students than South in 2020.
Keeping the district’s high schools relatively close in enrollment, Dr. Johnson said, allows for each school to offer similar programs because, theoretically, approximately the same number of students would be signing up for them. According to Dr. Johnson, consistent enrollment would also mean that buildings would be able to have a more stable staff over time.
At the middle school level, students would have more opportunities to take classes such as foreign languages and computer applications for high school credit, Dr. Johnson said. Having credit for those courses going into ninth grade would allow students to take more electives in high school or enroll in programs at Broadmoor Technical Center.
The proposals have caused parents and students to sign petitions, create websites and even write a song against the changes. Robin McCullough, who has children at both East and Brookwood, said her fight was not about being opposed to having her kids go to South, but rather that she wants them to go to East. She said her family was “one of hundreds” that bought or built their home specifically to be in the East and Mission Valley areas. McCullough doesn’t feel that the district should separate families from the high school their children have grown up cheering for.
“I’m telling you what I love about East and just because I love that about East doesn’t mean that South does not have it,” McCullough said. “But because I have bought into East and that is where my loyalty lies, then that’s not right to pull us away after 25 years in the same location and say ‘your loyalty now is going to be over here.’”
“Grandfathering” students into the school whose area they currently reside in is not a part of Dr. Johnson’s proposals. Instead, he said, the current Board transfer policy would be kept, meaning that any student that wishes to could transfer, with approval by a district administrator, to any school in the district. Even so, junior Jake McCoy is concerned about the fact that his brother and he would have to “transfer back” to East next year because they live in the Brookwood area.
“It seems unfair to the kids that already attend East, and especially for me, to potentially have to transfer in just for my senior year,” McCoy said. “It just doesn’t seem fair.”
Under Dr. Johnson’s plan, teachers at schools proposed to close are not necessarily guaranteed a job and, if they are retained, may not get to choose their assignment next year. Mission Valley teacher Judy Bakalar chose to teach at Mission Valley 11 years ago because she felt the school was like family and hoped to finish her career there. Since hearing Dr. Johnson’s proposals, she has realized that probably won’t be the case.
“In these economic times I think you do what you have to do to survive,” Bakalar said. “Everyone is in that mode in their personal lives as well as in the job scenario. So, other people have to sacrifice and it sounds like, you know, we as teachers will have to too.”
The last and only time the district has closed a middle school was during the 1985-86 school year when Broadmoor, Indian Creek and Old Mission were closed. At that time the district was moving ninth graders to high school and intended to have just five middle schools. Instead, a state law allowed parents in the East area to petition and ultimately keep Indian Hills from being closed. The Broadmoor and Indian Creek buildings are still in use by the district, but Old Mission was sold.
Dr. Johnson said that the district would find uses for the buildings that would close under his proposals, though no definite plans are in place right now. One possibility is consolidating programs that the district offers, such as early childhood education, into a single building rather than having them spread throughout the district. Dr. Johnson said the district plans to keep using the soccer fields at both Mission Valley and Antioch for teams at East and North.
“Obviously we have no intention of closing five schools and letting them sit there,” Dr. Johnson said. “We’re either going to decide what we’re going to utilize them for or we’re going to put them up for sale.”
Indian Hills teacher Nola Hoffmann said teachers at the middle school are “waiting expectantly” to see what the Board decides and, if closings are made, how they envision the class schedule to change. Hoffmann said she believes students from Mission Valley will have a home at Indian Hills.
“I’m really excited about having them come here,” Hoffmann said. “I’m glad that they’re going to be here. I think this school has a lot to offer.”
Hoffmann also believes that Indian Hills will be able to handle the additional students if Mission Valley closes. According to district numbers, Indian Hills housed 957 students in 1969-70, 132 more students than the district projects will be enrolled at the school 10 years from now and 45 students over the school’s maximum capacity.
Principal Karl Krawitz said that building under utilization would never be accepted in the business-world.
“We have to run schools like a business because that’s the expectation,” Dr. Krawitz said, “but at the same time we’re asked to make business decisions at the expense of kids.”

Recording of interview with Superintendent Gene Johnson (part one):
Johnson Interview (Part 1) by smeharbinger1

Recording of interview with Superintendent Gene Johnson (part two):
Johnson Interview (Part 2) by smeharbinger1