School-closing idea prompts questions

Lloyd Elementary School has 25 or more children in its kindergarten and third-grade classrooms, one parent said.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — A proposal by Superintendent Doug Heuer to close Davis Elementary School to save money has a handful of parents asking whether the decision can be delayed.

The parents want the delay because they have many questions about the reasons behind the closing.

Heuer says he recommended closing the K-3 school on Maple Avenue because the district has known since last fall it faces a $5.6 million deficit by the end of the 2008-09 school year if additional funding is not found.

“One way or another, we have to cut costs,” Heuer said Thursday. Closing the building will save around $500,000 next year, he added.

The superintendent asked the school board to decide by the March 10 board meeting whether to close the school. The decision must be made by April 1 and April 30, respectively, to meet deadlines for notifying the unions of reductions in teaching and nonteaching personnel for next school year.

Heuer also will ask the board in the coming months to put a levy before voters in August or November, he said.

“It’s not fair to ask voters for more money without making every effort to cut costs,” the superintendent said.

Heuer cited the following reasons for the projected budget deficit: the phase-out of personal tangible property tax money ($700,000); lower property tax collections (amount unknown); loss of pupils to open enrollment and charter schools ($1.5 million); and increases in the cost of fuel and utilities.

In his letter to board members Feb. 14, Heuer cited as a reason for closing Davis the 2007 performance audit conducted by the Ohio auditor’s office that says the district’s five elementary buildings are operating at far less than their capacity.

Enrollment has dropped from 8,000 pupils in the early 1980s to 5,000 today.

That same report’s finding that Davis Elementary is the second-best structure of the five elementary schools in the district is not as important as the evaluation done by R.P. Carbone Co. of Cleveland and the annual evaluations of district buildings done by Roth Bros. Construction of Austintown, Heuer said.

Both of those evaluations say Davis would be the best choice for closure, Heuer said, in part because it will need a new roof within a couple of years.

Kathleen Bache, a member of the Davis Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association, has voiced a range of concerns about the many reports Heuer has cited.

Bache and several parents of other Austintown elementary school pupils gathered at her home Thursday to dispute the idea the elementary buildings are as underused as Heuer says.

Heuer cited auditor statistics showing the elementary buildings to be between 52 percent and 59 percent full, but those numbers assume a 25-to-1 pupil-teacher classroom ratio, whereas the real ratio is about 20-to-1, Bache said. A more accurate number, therefore, would be between 62 percent and 71 percent full, Bache said.

This past school year, the district moved all classrooms into the main building at Davis instead of using trailer classrooms in the parking lot, said parent Michelle Gamertsfelder.

That allowed the music teacher to have an inside classroom. Using a trailer means children must wear coats to go to the trailer and must return to the main building to use a restroom, Gamertsfelder said.

Having two empty trailer classrooms doesn’t seem like it should be considered excess space, Gamertsfelder said. Those classrooms are included when calculating how full the buildings are, Heuer explained.

Mary Loeb, parent of a child attending Lloyd Elementary School, said the rating of Lloyd’s being 68 percent full seems off to her, too, because that building actually seems overcrowded.

At pickup and drop-off times, the parking lot is congested, and it is difficult for parents to fit into the building’s multipurpose room to watch school programs.

“It’s elbow to elbow,” she said.

There are 25 to 26 pupils in the kindergarten classes and 26 to 27 pupils in the third-grade classrooms at Lloyd, she said.

A meeting for all township parents is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Davis Elementary all-purpose room to discuss the issue, Bache said. Heuer is expected to attend.

runyan@vindy.com