D-11 knee-deep in details of school closure plans

With 67 recommendations on school closures, consolidations and program realignments in front of them, members of the Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education last week began wading into the details - and there are hundreds of them.

After listening to public comments for a little more than two hours Wednesday, the board was briefed on the latest changes to the recommendations and heard from steering committee members about their work on the plan. And, then the board started to tackle the list. The members went until 12:45 a.m. Thursday, discussing 27 recommendations affecting the high school and southwest sections of the plan. They'll take up the rest of the recommendations next week.

From discussions Wednesday and at a Feb. 4 work session, it appears that a majority of the board favors most of the plan, which would move students from eight elementary schools this fall. The plan also calls for closing Irving Elementary School this year or in 2011 and converting Wasson High School to an arts and math/science magnet school with up to 800 students.

Only board member Charles Bobbitt voiced opposition to most of the recommendations.

The board appears to favor making Wasson a smaller high school with a magnet program, but there was some dissension on whether the school should have any neighborhood boundaries.

The administration recommended no boundaries and redistributing all high school students among the district's other four high schools, meaning all Wasson students would attend on choice permits.

Board members said they favor moving the Bijou Alternative School into the Whittier school building, and want the administration to work to increase enrollment at the Tesla alternative schools.

The plan for the southwest portion of the district includes combining students from Buena Vista, Whittier and Washington elementary schools at West Middle School. Most board members favored the consolidation, but aren't convinced that a preschool through eighth grade concept is the best plan.

Several west side residents who spoke at Wednesday's public hearing, said they'd prefer to see a preschool through fifth or sixth grade at the school.

The administration plan calls for keeping the elementary students and middle school students in separate programs next year while the staff and community develop plans for integration.  Board members said they want to be open to whatever the community comes up with, whether it's PreK-8, PreK-5, PreK-6 or something else.

The board also seemed to favor closing Ivywild Elementary, moving the elementary International Baccalaureate program from Midland to North Middle School and developing plans to rebuild West.

The board will continue working through the recommendations at a meeting Wednesday at Coronado High School. Final action could come as soon as Feb. 25.

Also, the public hearing will reconvene at 7 p.m. Wednesday to accommodate members of the public who didn't get a chance to speak before last week's hearing concluded shortly after 9 p.m. The board heard from 39 people last week and another 61 are signed up to speak this week.