Yellow Pages
SEDRO-WOOLLEY — Declining enrollment is causing the Sedro-Woolley School Board to consider tough measures at Monday’s work session, including the possible closure of one of its rural elementary schools sometime in the future, Superintendent Mark Venn said Friday.
But officials stressed that it’s just a possibility and that they aren’t naming names.
“There will be no discussion about closing one school over another,” Venn said.
Officials said they have no concrete enrollment numbers to go on. In this first week of school, the numbers are still fluctuating wildly. But in mid-August, district Executive Director of Business and Operations Stewart Mhyre said the district predicted roughly 40 fewer students this year than last.
The state pays each district about $5,100 per child, so a loss of 40 students means a $204,000 cut in funding.
School Board President Jim Kallio said Friday that closing an elementary school would be “way, way, way in the future,” and possibly never. The district is also looking at other ways to mitigate declining enrollment, he said.
“We’re just looking at options down the road if enrollment keeps declining,” he said. “It would be an extreme last resort. With funding things the way they are, who knows what’s going to happen?”
Venn said the board needs to be aware of the difficulties of running small elementary schools.
“When we are in challenging economic times, how do we keep those schools open?” Venn said. “It costs almost as much to keep a smaller school open as a larger one.”
Other options include school boundary changes, Venn said.
“We could talk about more changes to get more kids into outlying schools,” Venn said. “We could justify keeping them going and economically viable if we could do that.”
The discussion is spurred by the recent 2008-09 budget woes, where the district had to cut more than $900,000 from its budget. Also, Venn said the district’s facilities needs continue even though voters turned down an April 2007 request for $45 million.
The school board will also view the new organizational chart at Monday’s meeting, due to the administrative cutbacks in the 2008-09 budget.
The work session will begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Support Service Building, 317 Yellow Lane, Sedro-Woolley. The School Board will not make a decision on the discussion. A regular meeting follows the work session, where the board will hear a report on the district’s enrollment.
* Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or .
IF YOU GO:
The work session will begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Support Service Building, 317 Yellow Lane, Sedro-Woolley.
