Schools Will Close

March 12, 2010

NEW ALBANY — 

Hundreds of people sat on the edge of their seats Thursday night anxiously awaiting the few little words that meant so much.

No. No. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

With only Lee Ann Wiseheart and Rebecca Gardenour voting against, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. board voted in favor of all Superintendent Bruce Hibbard’s recommendations to cut $5.6 million out of this year’s budget, which includes moving fifth-graders to the middle schools and closing Children’s Academy of New Albany, Galena Elementary, Pine View Elementary and Silver Street Elementary effective by the end of this school year.

Many people collapsed in their seats, others clung to one another in tears after hearing the dreaded news.

“I fought so hard for the people of New Albany and I feel like I let them down,” said Kathy Ayres, who had helped spearhead a group years ago dedicated to saving Silver Street. Her youngest will be in sixth grade and out of the elementary school next year.

“I wanted to keep it open for the neighborhood, the property values, for the community.”

Dave Barksdale, Floyd County historian, was shocked by the vote.

“I put a lot more faith in the board than they showed [Thursday night],” he said. “I’m very disappointed … But we’ll persevere. We’ll get over this. Still, it’s going to be a huge change for the neighborhoods.”

The decision wasn’t made quickly at the meeting, which was held at New Albany High School to accommodate the larger audience filled with hundreds of people. Multiple motions to split up the superintendent’s 40 recommendations that were left to be voted on were all denied.

Gardenour, who was in favor of splitting up the motion on school closure and voting on each school separately, said she has heard the people from her downtown district “loud and clear.” However, she was only able to vote on the issue as a whole, so she voted no.

“My vote represents the willingness to vote in a manner that’s in the best interest of children and not voting in a manner that’s rushed,” Wiseheart said after asking the board to table the issue involving closing schools and moving the fifth-graders until after the legislature finishes its session.

However, others said this is the new funding formula for schools, meaning permanent cuts need to be made now. They also said that more funding cuts from the state level may be made, especially if the economy doesn’t rebound quickly.

“It’s going to get worse,” Superintendent Hibbard said of the district’s financial situation. “We can delay it, but the problem is going to reoccur. We need to be more efficient and permanently lower expenditures.”

“It’s not as though this comes as a big surprise,” Neal Smith, board member, said, adding that many of the options were brought up at the annual school board retreat last fall. “It’s not as though we didn’t know these options before.”

“We still have a lot of work to do. I don’t feel like waiting will do a lot of good,” Patricia Badger-Byrd, board secretary, said. “We’re going to have to do more. It’s just going to get worse next year.”

Smith said the decision wasn’t easy.

“I think it’s easy to do the popular thing,” he said, adding that special interest groups have been making sure their points are heard. “The goal is to do what’s right for the entire school corporation. We get to choose from a lot of bad options, but we have to be responsible for the entire student population.”

“I just wanted to make sure it was the last resort,” Wiseheart said after the meeting, adding th at she felt that more ways to save, such as by looking at contracts of various employees including teachers, could be investigated.

READY FOR CHANGE

Bobbi Bickers, whose children attended the Four Start public school St. Mary of the Knobs prior to it being shut down, talked to the board and audience at the beginning of the meeting, referencing the Four Star status of Galena.

“You are not losing what made your school a Four Star School,” she said, adding that her children were moved to Floyds Knobs Elementary, which has earned that title 10 times since it has opened. “Change is very hard. There was a lot of fear about what would happen to our children, but it worked out. It worked out well.”

Hibbard is ready to make sure that happens.

“The real work starts now,” Hibbard said. “That is to get ready for student and parent open houses and student orientation at their new buildings. [We have to] make sure people know where they are going to go next year and to really create a welcoming environment for the kids that will be moving to a new school. I think we’ve got great teachers and great administrators that will make that happen and we will be better next year than we are this year.”

Hibbard said the changes have some positive affects outside of saving money, which include eliminating split grade-level classes, reducing class sizes and having more instruction time for fifth graders.

Hibbard — who has three children in the system: a first-, third- and fifth-grader — said that he supports the changes not only as a superintendent but as a father.

“As someone who has spen t his lifetime trying to improve academic achievement, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think it was a sound approach,” he said. “It’s not the grade configuration. It really comes down to having effective teachers working hard together, collaborating, for kids.”

MORE CUTS

This doesn’t mean the cuts are over.

With this night behind him, Hibbard said his administrative team is already preparing a list of more ways to cut back and save, in case the district gets the same news again about less funding later this year.

MOVING ON

The one thing many board members expressed once it was all over is a need for everyone to move on.

“Hopefully the community can come together and heal and do what’s best for kids,” Gardenour said.

THE CHANGES

• Close Children’s Academy of New Albany, Galena, Silver Street and Pine View schools.

• Move fifth-graders to the middle schools.

• Eliminate fourth grade school sponsored extra-curricular athletics.

• Offer a teacher retirement incentive.

• Hibernate three swimming pools.

• Eliminate the director of safety and public information, director of diversity, diversity secretary, director of alternative learning and energy auditor.