SUBMITTED BY SUSAN HULSIZER

I am not sure that the district can afford to keep Emerson open, given the long term structural deficits. I have heard figures at board meetings that it costs $600,000 to $700,000 yearly to keep a third junior high school open. I was a little surprised at their figure of $566,000 savings to close Emerson. However, looking closely at how they came to this figure, I think it may be too high. As you know from the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Meeting handout, the savings of closing Emerson is as follows:

Principal, 1.0 FTE, $132,000
Vice Principal, 1.0 FTE, $112,000
Office Staff, 3.25 FTE, $80,000
Library Technicians, 1.6 FTE, $78,000
Campus Supervisor, 0.95 FTE, $38,000
Custodial, 2.0 FTE, $100,000
Utilities and other costs, $25,000
Total: 9.8 FTE and $566,000

I would not argue with some of these estimates, the principal, the custodial, the utilities, but I think we can all agree that the vice principal FTE will not be a savings as the vice principal and campus supervisor allocations at the schools to which the students are reassigned will be increased by the same amount, or slightly less. To a lesser extent, the office staff at the remaining schools will need to be increased for the larger student body, as well as the library technicians. If these were the only positions which would change, I think the savings would be closer to $400,000.

There may actually be other savings which are not listed here such as the consolidation of music or language classes, which might save the district 0.5 to 1.0 teacher FTE, which they estimate at $60,000, which would make the total savings of perhaps $430,000- $460,000. Of course my view is based as a parent with experience on site councils, it would take a more detailed analysis to determine a more precise figure.

The trustees are working to a long term solution on the efficacy of the budget for all students in the district. When they consider the closure of Emerson, I think they need a more realistic number of how much the savings will be. I would request that the board look at how these estimates were made, and consider the increased costs of campus supervision at the
remaining secondary schools.