SALEM Board to mull closing school

Officials are being asked to put up money to help get an athletic complex built.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- One of the first tasks newly elected city school board members will have to consider when they take office in January is whether to close one of the district's four elementary schools.
The panel should weigh closing Prospect Elementary, the city's oldest school building, Superintendent Dr. David Brobeck told the board Monday.
The move would likely produce layoffs among the staff of 11 teachers, a principal, secretary, two custodians and two full-time aides. It also would displace about 220 pupils in fourth, fifth and sixth grades, some of whom would have to be bused to other schools in the city.
Closing the school, built in 1896, would save the district an estimated $250,000 annually, Brobeck said.
The district is scouting for savings because officials are fearful of plunging into a deficit, given voters' rejection earlier this month of a 7.85-mill levy that would have raised about $2.3 million annually.
Brobeck has said the levy probably will go back on the ballot, as early as the spring primary.
He denied the proposal to close the school, on Prospect Street on the city's southwest side, is a scare tactic intended to prod voters to approve the levy.
"Absolutely not," Brobeck said.
In this month's general election, voters scrapped re-election bids for incumbents Don Finch, Ken Kenst and Dr. Paul Shivers. Elected to replace them are Marguerite Miller, Elizabeth Gibbs Thatcher and Sean Hart.
Boosters' request
In other matters, the Salem Athletic Boosters Club asked the school board to consider setting aside $780,000 in capital improvement funds to guarantee a loan the group will seek to build a $1.2 million athletic complex at the high school.
With the school funds set aside, it would enable the boosters club to borrow money from a bank for construction of the facility, Brobeck said.
Using fund-raisers, the booster club would pay for the complex and eventually donate it to the school district.
If the boosters club were unable to raise enough to pay off the construction loan, then some or all the $780,000 of school money would be used to satisfy the debt, Brobeck explained.
Boosters already have raised about $200,000 toward the project.
The school board agreed to consider the proposal.
The 27,000-square-foot complex would include a weight room, locker room, coaches' office and auxiliary gymnasium.
leigh@vindy.com