Which school to close down to 2

Empire panel says Glick or Stroud the best picks

By Michelle Hatfield
mhatfield@modbee.com

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EMPIRE — Work is winding down for the committee charged with advising Empire Union School District trustees about which one of seven campuses should be closed next school year.

After Restructuring Advisory Committee members spent two hours Wednesday ranking which sites would be easiest, cheapest and least disruptive to close, it appears Stroud Elementary School and Glick Middle School are the two front-runners.

A final recommendation will be made to trustees in February. District officials hope to spend January gathering public — mainly parent — input.

AT A GLANCE
- THE ISSUE: After years of declining enrollment, officials at the Empire Union School District in southeast Modesto are considering closing one of seven campuses. Stroud Elementary School and Glick Middle School appear to be the candidates.
- WHAT IT MEANS: A committee of district employees, business leaders and parents has spent three months deciding what factors should be considered when determining which school to shut down. Then, based on that criteria, members ranked the schools.
- WHAT'S NEXT: The committee's recommendation will be forwarded to district trustees for a final decision, possibly as early as February. Until then, officials hope to get more input, especially from parents.
Empire Schools

The district serves southeast Modesto and Empire. Enrollment has steadily declined from 4,200 students in 2002-03 to 3,160 this school year. To help cut expenses, officials plan to shutter a campus and consolidate students at the remaining schools. After a final decision is made, another committee will look at what to do with that campus. Leasing it or turning it into a charter school are among the possibilities.

Some of the factors used by the committee to judge which campus would be the best to close were:

Least impact on the community

Highest maintenance costs

Highest school bus transportation costs

Oldest school

Lowest cost to reopen

If Stroud Elementary is chosen, attendance boundaries for the four remaining elementary schools would need to be redrawn to distribute Stroud's students.

The district has just two middle schools, so if Glick Middle School is picked, officials would have to consider whether sixth-graders should be moved to elementary schools to make room for all of the seventh- and eighth-graders at Teel Middle School.

The decision to close a school, even temporarily, is one of the most contentious, emotional and difficult decisions trustees have to make. With declining enrollment at most of Stanislaus County's school districts, a troubled economy and a housing market that may not have hit bottom, other districts will be researching similar strategies in the next few years.

At the end of the committee's final meeting Wednesday, its members thanked Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Pam Wall for her work gathering all the information.

After the holiday break, officials will hold a community meeting in January for public feedback and try to offer an online and paper survey for parents.

Trustees could make a decision at their Feb. 12 meeting.

Bee staff writer Michelle Hatfield can be reached at mhatfield@modbee.com or 578-2339.