Clarksville to Recommend Closing One School (TN)
May 7, 2010
Even though George Rogers Clark Elementary has been open for more than 100 years, its future will soon lie in the hands of the Clarksville Community School Corp. board.
Tuesday night voters turned down a referendum that would have raised taxes 24 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to those owning property in the district by 55 percent.
Interim Superintendent Kim Knott said that means major changes for the district.
“I will be making a recommendation to the board to close one of our elementary schools and it will most likely be GRC,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s the board’s decision, but I will be making that recommendation.”
That’s not all either.
The district recently sent out notices to 25 teachers informing them that they may not have their contracts renewed. Knott said she is unsure if any of those will keep their jobs. She said cuts in the classified staff, which includes secretaries, is likely as well.
In addition, the school district plans to eliminate counseling and electives for the elementary students.
Bill Wilson, president of the board, said the 25 teacher notifications was a worst case scenario.
“We’re probably approaching that,” he said. “I don’t know if we will get any of them back. I hope we can.”
Right now, he said the district’s teaching staff is at 91. He said if 25 were cut that would mean programs would be effected as would class sizes.
“I’m going to do all that I can to get as many people as I can called back. Having said that, you can’t spend money you don’t have,” said J im Bemiss, board vice president. “If we can’t call any back, we’ll still have school and offer kids a quality education as we always have.”
Knott said the district was struggling with cutting $491,000 in 2010 expenses before the state announced more cuts earlier this year, which means the district needs to cut $460,000 on top of that. All those cuts are in the general fund, which pays mostly for salaries and student programs.
Wilson said school closure may be imminent.
“I don’t know how a building won’t be closed, because we’ve got to make cuts and the people have voted and we have to deal with things the way they are,” he said.
“I personally don’t want to see us close a school, but that’s not to say it won’t happen,” said board member John Gilkey. “I want to explore every other possibility before we get to that point.”
However, Wilson said time is of the essence so that the district can start to cut back its spending. He said if a school were to be closed, he predicts it will happen before the start of the school year this August. Bemiss agreed.
“I wish we had more time, but given everything involved, we’ve been forced down to this short period of time to make these decisions,” Bemiss said, adding that the time was shortened since the district wanted to allow the voters a chance to decide on a referendum.
Wilson said GRC is the smaller of the district’s two elementary schools and the most expensive to maintain, since it opened in 1899. He said Greenacres Elementary School has room for more students. However, if GRC were to close, Wilson said the district would have to undergo a reorganization plan to make it work. He said the board hasn’t discussed what that would entail yet . Bemiss said he predicts that one of those options would be to move fifth graders to the middle school.
Knott is hopeful to get those who voted yes for the referendum to work with the district to try to find creative ways to help the funding shortfall.
She said at this point the main goal is to keep Clarksville schools its own district.
“I don’t believe consolidation is the best option for us,” she said. “I’m going to work with those [609] folks [who voted yes] to see what we can do to keep Clarksville a community school corporation.”
Leon Stocksdale, principal at GRC, had no comment at this time for this story.