Citizens addressing members of the Conneaut School Board on July 6, brought a mixed message to the school leaders as nine residents spoke offering differing ideas as to what the future of the school district should look like.

Regardless of the comments, huge decisions face the residents of the district as issues of declining enrolment and tight finances need to be addressed among others.

Four committees are being organized to study the areas of facility use, transportation, budget and curriculum with the district seeking volunteers to serve as the issues are explored

It was decided to increase to three volunteers from each attendance area, instead of two, on each of the committees and to limit the volunteers to one per family to give more residents a chance to serve.

The committee meetings, which should be starting in the next week-and-a-half, will be announced soon, and a first meeting date set.

The committee meetings will be open to the public.

The study of how the future of the school district may look is being called B.U.S.S - Better Utilization of School Space.

John Burnham of the Conneaut Valley area said, in part, that he thought the consolidation issue was settled with the building program years back and suggested a 2-School North/South option was not the way to go as transportation is a big hammer. He noted the school board has a difficult task ahead and suggested building numbers in the middle schools by moving 5th and 6th grades to those areas in the current high schools.

Left unsaid was the change in economic conditions since the last building program with stock market reverses, job losses and declining state aid .

.Doug Wilson, Conneaut Lake, father of 3 daughters in the Lake schools and principal of Saegertown High School, said he applauded all of you for the monumental task ahead. He supported keeping the Conneaut lake Schools open, capitalizing on Conneaut Lake's draw,, suggested the talk of closing schools and selling them was not good as schools would not be sold.

He worried that one of his daughters would be taught math this upcoming year by a former music teacher, certified in math and bumped from the music position by the cutback in staff. The music teacher is certified in math. with Wilson noting it's been 20 years since the teacher taught math.

Certifications and length of service come into play when there are staff cutbacks.

Vince Pisani, Conneaut Lake, urged the board to hire an independent firm to analyze enrolments of the future, apparently concerned that current school architects would be biased toward building again. It was pointed by a board member there are no plans to build - only use what is available.

Cost to hire an architect to do a population study could run in excess of $10,000. Yet there are state figures available and as suggested, look at current enrolments. There are 135 kindergarten students signed up for this fall, the three graduated classes of 2011 in Conneaut [Lake, Valley, Linesville] was just over 200.

Pisani's suggested plan was to have K - 5 schools, one grades 6 - 8 school and one 9 - 12 school.

Trish Prebor, CL parent and teacher, suggested 3, K - 6 schools, 2, 7 - 9 schools and one, 10 - 12 high school.

Alice Battles, CL area resident, suggested keeping all schools open, saying it is what many parents want.

Jennifer King, Conneaut Lake area, noted the Lake and Linesville were closer to each other while CV's Kathy Watson spoke to students in smaller schools knowing each other better.

All speakers were applauded.