The loss of 50 students at Greene County Schools will likely mean the loss of the Intermediate School, the former East Greene High School in Grand Junction, as an attendance center.
The Greene County Schools board of education will hold a special meeting Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 5:30 pm at the school music room in Grand Junction. The agenda will include board consideration of the superintendent’s recommendation to close the building at the end of the current school year. The agenda specifies there will be public comment time during the meeting.
Closing the Grand Junction building was discussed at the board’s September meeting as a way to realize savings in the general fund. Information presented during the failed bond referendum estimated annual savings of $300,000 in closing the building. Superintendent Tim Christensen suggested those savings could be realized even without new construction for a two-building district. The district is financially able to add space to the elementary school for fourth grade classrooms, and with the use of modular classrooms at the middle school in Jefferson, grades 5-8 could attend school there.
The cost savings became more imperative after the Oct. 15 student count. The certified enrollment for 2016-17 is 1,248, a reduction of 50 students from last year. That means an estimated $330,000 decrease in state funding. With the state’s method of funding, that decrease will be seen for the 2018-19 school year.
Christensen reminded the board that last year’s certified enrollment saw an increase of 14 students. A net loss of 36 students over the two years, an average of 18 students per year, follows the district’s enrollment trend in recent years, Christensen said.
Last year’s senior class was about 12 students larger than this year’s incoming kindergarten class.
Christensen clarified that the count is of resident students, not the number of students attending Greene County schools. Even so, open enrollment numbers last year and this year are identical, he said. The loss of students is spread across the grades, so reducing staff is not a simple solution.
“In terms of knowing where those 50 kids went, I have no idea,” he said.
There are 200 students at the middle school now; adding grades 5-6 would double that amount. There were about 350 students in the building when Jefferson-Scranton grades 5-8 attended there prior to the reorganization with East Greene.
Christensen reported he has talked with architects at Shive-Hattery about finalizing plans drafted for the addition to the elementary school. That needs to be done soon if construction is to begin in the spring for occupancy next August.
Former East Greene board member Tim Bardole attended the meeting and was recognized to speak. He said he didn’t understand the logic of adding portable classrooms, with less secure entrances. He said that “bouncing kids around” from building to building isn’t good for them. “If you want a bond, it will pass at some point. I don’t think it will pass with $3 corn,” he said. “… To pour money more or less down a rat hole just to close Grand Junction next year instead of in two or three years seems ridiculous to me,” Bardole said.
Christensen said he has been approached by the Ogden school district about purchasing part of his contract. He said many school districts share superintendents – Nevada and Ballard both share their superintendents with other districts.
The board asked Christensen to continue the discussion with Ogden.
According to board member Mark Peters, the decrease in enrollment “highlights the fact that we’ve got to get more efficient, one way or the other. It’s 50 this year, it’s 10 or whatever next year. It’s just going to snowball.”
The special meeting was scheduled in Grand Junction at the request of board member Ashley Johnston, saying “it would be fair to them to discuss it with them. It’s fair to hear their opinions before we make a decision. I know it’s not going to change anything, but I think it should be done before a decision is made.”
After the Nov. 2 meeting was set, Bardole suggested that a longer term solution to finances might lie with Paton-Churdan. He encouraged the Greene County board “to cultivate a relationship with that board that will in the end be better for not only your students, but for their students…. It’s something that would be better for everybody,” Bardole said.
The board earlier in the meeting had asked Christensen to inquire with the P-C board if Nov. 30 would work for a joint meeting of the two boards. A periodic joint meeting is in the agreement under which P-C high school students take classes at Greene County.
