Published: January 12, 2009 11:25 pm         

Tanoos chimes in on school closings

TERRE HAUTE — The Vigo County School Corp. administrative team supports the possibility of closing Chauncey Rose Middle School and sending those students to Woodrow Wilson and Otter Creek middle schools, Superintendent Dan Tanoos told a facility task force Monday.

During a task-force meeting, Tanoos was asked to share the administration’s perspective on some of the issues being discussed. The task force is developing recommendations for the School Board.

Tanoos said Chauncey Rose “is not a very good facility … It’s probably our most expensive building to maintain.” He was formerly the principal there. It has three different buildings, and its heating/ventilation/air-conditioning system needs constant maintenance, he said. It rated very low in its building assessment score.

“We would be in favor of looking at the possibility of closing Chauncey Rose in the future and moving those students to Otter Creek and to Woodrow Wilson,” he said.

To accommodate redistricting of Chauncey Rose students, Woodrow Wilson students who now live in the south side of that district and attend Terre Haute South Vigo High School would likely be redistricted to Sarah Scott Middle School, Tanoos suggested.

The task force is considering whether some schools should be closed — West Vigo Elementary, Chauncey Rose and Booker T. Washington High School. Districtwide, it is reviewing what facilities should be renovated and which ones may need redistricting.

Its last meeting will be Jan. 26. The task force does not have decision-making power. It is advisory only. Any decisions would be made by the School Board.

Tanoos shared other ideas with regard to facilities.

• “We fully support the Booker T. Washington [high school] program, but not in that building” at 1201 S. 13th St., he said. The building dates back to 1914. “We’d like to see [the program] put in another facility.”

It is the most expensive building in which to educate a student in the school district, he said. The cost is about $10,000 per student, and the school has 79 students, he said.

If it is located in another school, there would be cost savings achieved through sharing of facilities and some personnel.

• West Vigo Elementary should be placed on a “watch” list but not closed soon, Tanoos said. If it were closed, students would be redistricted to Consolidated and Fayette, and the bus ride to Fayette would be a long one, Tanoos acknowledged.

He suggested enrollment numbers at West Vigo continue to be monitored for the next several years.

• DeVaney, which is over-capacity, should not be redistricted, he suggested. With the district’s declining enrollment, that problem may take care of itself in upcoming years, he told the task force.

West Vigo Elementary, Chauncey Rose and Washington have been identified as the schools with the greatest and most costly facility needs that also are under-used.

The task force heard more information from Debra Kunce of Schmidt Associates, which is overseeing the facility planning process. Members also began some difficult deliberations but also said they need more information before they could recommend any school closings.

Task force member Norm Lowery wanted to know what redistricting might do to class size and extracurricular participation — for example, if Chauncey Rose were closed and its students sent to Wilson and Otter Creek.

He wanted to know the savings gained if schools were closed and what other gains there would be that benefit students. Saving money is one part, Lowery said, but “what will we accomplish beyond that?” if the ultimate goal is quality education for children.

Tanoos said there would be a commitment to maintaining current class sizes.

Kunce said one goal of facility planning is to get schools to 80 to 95 percent utilization, but that can’t be accomplished without some school closings. Chauncey Rose is at 67 percent utilization and West Vigo Elementary is at 61 percent.

At one point, Kunce asked the task force for its thoughts on closing West Vigo Elementary. Some said they needed more information about cost savings and benefits before they could make a recommendation.

Task force member Joe Minnis said that to accommodate the West Vigo students, there would likely have to be an addition to Consolidated, an added cost. There also would be costs associated with busing students to Fayette. “How much would we save by closing West Vigo Elementary?” he asked.

Task force member Rick Burger, who’s been involved in a similar process at another school district, told the others, “We’re going to make some tough, tough decisions,” and that likely will involve closing some schools, he said.

Burger agreed the task force does need more information. When he makes his decision, Burger said he’d rely a lot on the administration’s perspective of what should be done.

At the next meeting, Kunce will try to answer questions, looking at the cost savings if each of the three schools were closed and also how much it would cost over the next 10 years to renovate them and keep them open.

Some members of the public attended, including Gwen Noll, parent of a special needs student at West Vigo Elementary. If the school is closed, she has concerns about whether the needs of special education children will be met at the new schools.

“We don’t want our children left behind,” she said. Also, Consolidated and Fayette are not Title 1 schools and they do not have full-day kindergarten programs; West Vigo is Title 1 and does have full-day kindergarten.

Noll also has concerns that sending the West Vigo children to the other schools might keep some of them and their parents from participating in before- and after-school activities.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.