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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > February > 11
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Board to vote on school closing
Board members will decide the fate of Clark Middle School this week.
The board will vote on a committee recommendation to suspend Clark as a middle school, move sixth grade back to the elementary buildings and relocate pre-school programs and administrative offices to Clark for the 2009-10 school year, according to the tentative agenda for the Feb. 12 board meeting.
If approved, the financially-driven move would save the district more than $500,000 a year in the future, with smaller savings in the first year due to renovations and other costs, according to board Vice President Ed Leventhal.
A board commissioned facilities committee, led by Leventhal and made up of staff, parents and community members, has examined the district’s facilities usage for the last several months.
The committee finalized its recommendation Feb. 2, after holding a community forum to gather input.
The proposal has been criticized by Clark parents and parents of students in the pre-school program who feel the move would be detrimental to those students and the savings would not outweigh those cost.
The district must cut $1.4 to $1.9 million from its budget for the next school year as it awaits release from state oversight for persisting financial woes over the last five years, said Interim Superintendent Don Thompson.
Auditors recommended over the summer that officials close a middle school and remove its operations from South High School to save money and improve building capacity rates as low as 75 percent in the district’s middle schools, according to a June performance audit.
The board meets at 6 p.m. Thursday in the city forum at 76 E. High St.
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