Jefferson Elementary School may not be on the chopping block just yet.
Superintendent Roger Kilpatrick gave his recommendation on the District 709 facilities renovation/construction project at the district’s school board meeting May 4. His suggestion would still close Jefferson’s doors, but not for about six years.
The overall plan would focus on district elementary schools during phase one, followed by the junior high and high school in phase two.
Kilpatrick recommended going to a 5 through 8 middle school in phase two of the project, which would eliminate two grade levels from each elementary school.
In order to make sure the other three elementaries are not expanded too much during phase one of the project, Kilpatrick said it makes sense to maintain Jefferson until phase two begins.
While Jefferson would be open and maintained, additions would be made to Grundy Elementary, Lettie Brown Elementary and Lincoln Elementary, but only by as much as each needs to sustain each school.
“At the point in time that we go to phase two and we go to the 5-8 structure, the three elementary schools then would be large enough to hold all of the K-4 population,” he said.
Jefferson would be maintained in a safe manner, but no major improvements would be made.
Kilpatrick estimated that it would cost roughly $250,000 per year to keep Jefferson open. Over the proposed six year time period, that adds up to $1.5 million.
He estimated that if Jefferson was closed now, adding to Lincoln, Grundy and Brown schools to handle the population of Jefferson would cost about $5 million. When the elementaries changed to K-4 structures some of the added space would not be used.
By keeping Jefferson open, the expansions to the other elementaries would be less, therefore costing less.
“By doing that, we could pay off the bonds earlier and do phase two earlier,” Kilpatrick said.
Kilpatrick said splitting Jefferson students was definitely a concern.
“Maintaining Jefferson School now is going to maintain that community, maintain that neighborhood, maintain that student population right now, understanding that at some point in time it’s going to change,” he said. “But it’s going to change at the same time that we change the grade structure.”
Board vice president Nancy Overcash said it is important to have a plan laid out for both phase one and two.
“I feel like taxpayers are going to want to know, before they go into phase one, how they feel about the whole picture,” she said.
School board president Tom Neeley said communication with the community is very important.
“We need a community to drive the next phase,” he said.
At the May 18 meeting, there will be further discussion regarding the plan. A final plan is expected at the June 1 meeting.
In other business and discussion, the board:
• saw a presentation from Jefferson fifth-grade students who competed in the Peoria Area Fifth Grade Rube Goldberg competition at the Edwards Demonstration Facility in March. Mary Blaudow’s class won the competition and advanced to the state competition at the University of Illinois.
“They learned so much more from this than I could teach,” Blaudow said. “That, to me is what education and learning is all about.”
• voted to re-elect president Tom Neeley, vice president, Nancy Overcash and secretary, Joyce Kaiser for one-year terms
• heard from Grundy School second-grade teacher, Deborah Elliot, who is concerned because the district’s reading specialist was lost to budget cuts
“I think our school district must cut out nonessentials,” she said.
• discussed the possible elimination of class rank being reported on Morton High School transcripts
For the 2010-11 school year, students would have the option of having their rank on their transcripts, but the ultimate goal is to eliminate the number entirely.
• discussed enforcing a closed-campus for high school juniors
Last year, the board voted to close campus to freshman and sophomore students for the 2009-10 school year. The plan was to phase-in the closed campus to junior and senior students. The recommendation for next year, is to close campus for grades 9, 10 and 11.
While the plan is to eventually adopt a closed campus for all students, the administration is concerned that adding two more grade levels to the closed campus at lunch would create overcrowding and confusion for the upcoming school year.
• approved the changes to Bertha Frank Performing Arts Center rates
Kilpatrick said that rates have gradually increased over the past few years in an attempt to get rates up to the point where the cost of the rental is at least recovered.
• approved a fee increase for the 2010-11 school year
Fees raised include all drivers education courses to $25, high school parking to $30, elementary school registration fee to $68, seventh grade school registration fee to $103, eighth grade school registration fee to $109, high school registration fee to $166, junior high activity fee to $61, high school activity fee to $91, elementary school lunch to $1.85, junior high school lunch to $1.95, high school lunch to $2.05 and ala carte lunch items will increase by 5 percent.
• approved the voluntary transfer of Jami Kaisershot from full-time district gifted coordinator to first-grade teacher at Brown School effective for the 2010-11 school year
• approved the appointments of Don Cordell to substitute teacher; Megan Levitt, Erin Day and Amanda Cross to special education summer school teacher for summer 2010; Nan Rupert and Nan Birky to summer school speech therapist for summer 2010; Diane Kirk, Briton Cartner, Elise Pflederer, Kris Stieglitz, Mary Bishop, Diane Conklin, Amanda Cheatham, Sheri Mitchell, Laura Smith and Elena Weber all to summer school special education instructional aide for summer 2010; Darren Hurst to eighth-grade girls basketball coach at Morton Junior High School effective for the 2010-11 school year; Cindy Chambers as part-time Response to Intervention instructional aide at Lincoln School effective for the 2010-11 school year; Jennifer Perez to special education job coach for summer 2010; and Emily Schmidgall to part-time special education instructional aide at Jefferson School effective May 10, 2010.
• approved the resignation of Sheila Scheck from her position as part time RtI aide at Lincoln School effective at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
