In lieu of the current plan to close an elementary school for the 2010-2011 and subsequent school years, we the undersigned parents and community members urge you to substitute the following reductions which would achieve even greater initial savings than the current proposal with far fewer negative impacts to students as well as to the District’s bottom line.

$190,000 3.5 Secretaries (1/2 position from each school currently with 2 FTE or greater)

$150,000 3 Custodians (1/2 position from each school currently with 2.5 FTE or greater)

$ 20,000 Playground Assistants

$ 38,000 Utility Savings (adjust thermostats District wide by 2 degrees, saving 6% power)

$398,000     TOTAL SAVINGS

This would result in each school having one full-time secretary. Other secretaries would be allocated halftime at schools (as currently happens at Jefferson). Each school would also have one day and one evening custodian. Let us be clear that we understand such cuts would significantly impact the operation of our schools. Secretaries and custodians are important to our schools’ operation. However, the current closure proposal already anticipates MOST of these cuts. Our proposal would at least spread the burden across the district rather than only on a few schools. Moreover, because students would not be forced to leave their neighborhood schools, the risk of a student being injured walking to school, the risk of significant numbers of students transferring out of district, or failing to get to school, would be substantially lower. We are concerned that the Board’s decision to close a school was made last year before any serious analysis was conducted either of the impacts of the closure on students and families or the ultimate fiscal cost to the district, particularly in the current environment. We believe that the damage, both fiscal and otherwise, of closing a school will outweigh any minimal savings. Thus we ask you to reconsider your prior action in light of our proposal.

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