Austintown officials mull 1 big elementary school

March 9, 2008 at 12:15a.m.

The superintendent will give the school’s unions a ‘long list’ of potential layoffs.

AUSTINTOWN — Austintown has always been known as a big school district.

For the sake of efficiency, it is possible the 5,000-student district will become big in a new way within a couple of years — having one of the biggest elementary school buildings in the state.

Superintendent Doug Heuer says the district will be eligible by next year to receive about 50 percent of the money needed from the Ohio School Facilities Commission to replace its five elementary buildings and renovate two others.

The Cleveland consulting company R.P. Carbone recommended that the district replace its five elementary school buildings with two new ones of about 700 pupils each. On Feb. 27, the school facilities commission also recommended two new buildings.

But Heuer had another idea: How about one? He asked Steve Roka, a school facilities commission consultant, and Roka said the single-building concept was a “reasonable alternative,” Heuer said.

Heuer and schools facility spokesman Rick Savors agree that if Austintown went with the single-school concept, the district would be among only a couple in the state with such a large elementary school. Heuer said such large elementary schools are more common in large cities and in other states.

“That’s larger than what you usually see in Ohio,” Heuer said.

Savors said one reason so few elementary buildings are that large is because relatively few school districts are large enough to have that many children in grades kindergarten through Grade 3.

Austintown has the second-highest enrollment in Mahoning County, Heuer said, behind only Youngstown. Boardman’s enrollment is slightly less than Austintown’s, Heuer said.

Savors estimates there are two to three elementary buildings in Ohio that hold 1,400 or more pupils in one building. He said the school facilities commission has not set a limit to the number of pupils it will allow to be housed in a single building.

Numerous studies have been done to determine whether buildings containing a large or small number of pupils are the best learning environment. Concerns have been raised about whether large schools are effective.

In response, some schools have built school buildings that hold large numbers of pupils but created “self-contained communities” within them, Savors said. For example, the Mansfield public school district has 1,800 students divided in three such communities at its new high school, Savors said.

Meanwhile, at a parent meeting held at Davis Elementary on March 3, Heuer heard from parents who like the “community school” concept the district has employed since its five elementary school buildings were built in the 1940s and 1950s.

“The community elementary school has been a big part of my life. You’d be doing this community a big disservice if you do this,” Pete Gabriel, parent of a pupil at Davis Elementary on Maple Avenue, said of Heuer’s proposal to close the school.

Gabriel and others urged Heuer and school board members to leave the buildings the way they are rather than close Davis. Many of the parents said they were afraid that closing Davis would lead to overcrowding in other buildings. They also questioned why Davis was being targeted over other buildings.

Heuer, conversely, said the five elementary buildings are only about 70 percent full now that fourth-graders have moved from the elementary buildings to Frank Ohl Intermediate School.

Heuer wrote a letter to board members Feb. 14 recommending the closure of one elementary school to save around $500,000 per year. Davis Elementary would be the best choice because of its low enrollment (203 pupils) and its need for a new roof, Heuer said. The school board could make a decision on closing Davis as early as Monday, when the board meets in regular session at 6:30 p.m. at Austintown Middle School.

Heuer said he understands why people want to keep their community elementary schools, but he feels Austintown can no longer afford them.

The district will not be allowed to spend school facilities commission money to repair the existing elementary buildings because of the facilities commission’s “two-thirds” rule, Heuer said. The commission generally will not allow its money to be used on renovations in which the cost exceeds two-thirds the cost of new construction.

Heuer said the district must find ways to save money because it is projecting a $5.6 million budget deficit by the end of the 2008-09 school year. He will advise school board members of a variety of cost-cutting and revenue enhancing options in the coming months.

One is to recommend the district offer open enrollment, which would allow pupils from outside the district to attend Austintown schools without paying tuition. Austintown would be one of the first suburban Youngstown districts to offer it. It is not available in Austintown, Boardman, Canfield or Poland.

Austintown expects to lose around $1.5 million next school year in state funding because of the loss of pupils to open enrollment and charter schools, Heuer said.

Heuer will also ask board members to submit a levy request to voters by the August or November 2008 election, Heuer said.

The board may hire an architect as early as the March 10 meeting to design the school facilities project, Heuer said. The architect would be asked to design one or two elementary school buildings and renovations to the Frank Ohl Intermediate building and Austintown Fitch High School.

Heuer said he would not follow the funding mechanism used by most districts in Ohio to fund the district’s facilities commission project. Instead of asking voters to pass a bond issue to pay for them, he would recommend taking out a loan and repaying it with the savings from closing the existing elementary buildings, Heuer said.

For example, closing the five elementary schools would save roughly $2.5 million in building costs per year, whereas one new building would cost less than $1 million to operate. The $1.5 million in savings would be used to pay off the loan, Heuer said.

Heuer said he’s not sure such a funding method has ever been used in Ohio before, but he feels it makes sense for Austintown because the community might not be able to afford a bond issue and an operating levy at the same time.

Whether board members vote to close Davis Elementary at the March 10 meeting or not, Heuer will be giving the unions representing the teaching and nonteaching employees a “long list” of people who could potentially face layoffs at the end of the current school year, Heuer said.

Such notification is required by their contracts, he said.

Staffing reductions are possible for the 2008-09 school year regardless of whether the school board chooses to close an elementary school, Heuer said. But reducing costs by closing Davis could reduce the need for layoffs, he said.

runyan@vindy.com