Parents wary of school changes, closure

Though a public forum on the matter is scheduled for next Tuesday, parents could not wait to voice their concerns about the possible closing of East School and the restructuring of the district’s elementary schools, and besieged the Board of Education and administration with almost three hours of comments at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

Many of the complaints that have been discussed over the past two months were reiterated: Parents don’t want their children to move among different elementary schools and don’t want increases in class size. But a few applauded the district for thinking outside the box in the search for cost savings.

In 2012 the district created a facilities study group, made up of parents, teachers, residents and school employees, to explore ways to reconfigure the district to make the most efficient use of its space. The group was also tasked with finding a location for the administrative offices, which were condemned due to Hurricane Sandy damage. It made its first presentation in November, laying out 11 options. Since then they have been narrowed to five, with two calling for repurposing East School as an administrative building, two suggesting a restructuring of the elementary school grades and one calling for leaving things as is but housing the administration at the Lindell school.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Superintendent David Weiss presented the last piece of the puzzle, the anticipated cost savings for each option. The options that involve repurposing East School would save the district about $1.6 million the first year and approximately $1.4 million per year after that. The two options that redistribute grades would save over $600,000 per year.

“There is a cost savings if we repurpose East,” Weiss said. “I think that people are well aware that we’re operating under tight budget constraints. The board absolutely has not made their mind up, and I haven’t made a formal recommendation. But I think if you look at the economic piece, the option of repurposing does stand out.”